Barangay officials find hand grenade while laying pipes for a water system project

By BONG PEDALINO, PIA Southern Leyte
February 2, 2011

MAASIN CITY, Southern Leyte  –  What used to be a non-event of a chore working the ground for laying out pipes and channeling water in a barangay turned out a shocker when an old hand grenade, its safety pin unlocked, was found in the course of the digging.

This was what happened Tuesday as recounted to the City Police by Benito Tagra Lorzano, Punong Barangay of Batuan, a hinterland village located some seven kilometers from the city proper to the northwest, together with his lead Tanod Floro Candole Oliva.

Police Officer 2 Herman Montederamos of the City Police Office said that at about ten in the morning on Tuesday, both Lorzano and Oliva showed up at the station bringing along the found item, a grenade similar in appearance with a cacao fruit.

It was not an easy task, as the barangay volunteers scampered to a safe distance first upon seeing the dreaded thing dug just a feet off the ground’s surface, fearing it will explode, and only a little later did one of them mustered the courage to peep and pick the unusual find.

PO2 Montederamos said he likewise surrendered the old grenade immediately to the Firearms and Explosives Division at the provincial PNP headquarters for safekeeping and disposal of the same.

In a follow-up call at the provincial PNP, Police Inspector Antonio Tiu told the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) that the grenade was technically called NK4, and that it was probably buried in the 70s at the height of the imposition of Martial Law in the country.

P/Insp. Tiu, a bomb expert, said the grenade still had some powder inside but it will no longer explode on its own, yet remained dangerous as it can be harmful once triggered by heat, like thrown into an open fire.