Parts of IED materials recovered from the explosion sites. Contributed photos
JAEN, Nueva Ecija – Twin explosions hit the vicinity of the municipal hall compound in Barangay Sapang here Sunday amid the escalating mayoralty row.
Police said two improvised explosive devices exploded near the fence outside the compound, a few meters away from the town hall at about 4:25 p.m.
The blasts occurred even as a number of policemen were securing the place owing to the restive condition since Thursday when a sheriff from the Gapan Regional Trial Court tried to install former Mayor Antonio Prospero Esquivel in place of incumbent Mayor Sylvia Austria.
Austria was declared winner by the municipal board of canvassers as duly elected winner on May 13, 2019 but the court proclaimed Esquivel as winner after a manualrecount on Dec. 7.
Town police chief Major Baltazar Corpuz said local and augmentation police forces “were conducting security measures” when “they heard two explosions near Gate 5.”
Probers recovered scattered nails and bottles used as shrapnels, motorcycle batteries and gasoline residue from the explosion sites.
Nueva Ecija police director Col. Marvin Joe Saro rushed to the town hall and talked to Austria at about 8p.m.
Fourth District Rep. Maricel Natividad-Nagaño and her husband Mayor Froilan Nagaño of the adjacent town of San Leonardo also visited Austria at the town hall, where the local chief executive has stayed since Thursday.
Councilor Sylvester Austria, the mayor’s son, said the incidents happened during brownout thus no CCTV footage was available yet.
No one was hurt in the explosions.
