Roxas scolds police over CDO blast site cleanup

MANILA, Philippines – Less than a day after the blast in Cagayan de Oro City that left 6 people dead, the scene of the crime has already been cleaned up even as investigations were still ongoing. 

By the time Local and Interior Government Secretary Mar Roxas arrived in Cagayan de Oro City Saturday afternoon, July 27, the area outside Candy’s Cafe and Kyla’s Bistro at the Rosario Arcade and Limketkai Center where the blast occured on Friday, July 26, at around 11:10 pm had already been cleared. Sun.Star reports establishment owners, who were not identified, initiated the clean up. 

Roxas scolded the police for allowing this to happen. In an interview with ANC, Roxas said he has instructed the police to “reconstruct” the crime scene through interviews with injured victims and other witnesses as part of efforts to find out more about the perpetrator and explosive used in the blast. 

“The center of investigation is discovering what kind of explosive was it so we can trace back how it was put together so we can find out who was behind this,” he told ANC. 

Police are now going through CCTV footage of areas near the site, Roxas said. They are also in the process of conducting background checks on all patrons of the establishments, as well as the 48 people injured and 6 people who died in the incident. 

Roxas also revealed police already had a cartographic sketch of a possible suspect. 

The explosion occured in one of the busiest areas in the city. Cagayan de Oro City police chief Senior Supt Graciano Mijares earlier said a still-unidentified person left an improvised explosive device concealed in a black bag on a black monoblock chair outside Kyla’s Bistro. 

As of Sunday morning, July 28, no angle or motive has been determined.

Most of the victims of the explosion were doctors and pharmaceutical salesmen who had just attended a national convention of lung-disease specialists at the nearby the Grand Caprice hotel, also at the Limketkai center. 

Three of the victims died on the site, while the others died in hospitals. – Rappler.com