Police recover dynamite, bomb materiel stolen from Benguet mining depot

BENGUET, Philippines – Police recovered a huge cache of dynamite and other bomb materiel in Quirino Hill on Thursday afternoon, September 6. 

Cordillera Regional Chief Superintendent Rolando Nana said the stash was not meant for terrorist purposes. The suspect is a private miner and these were stolen from a mining depot in Itogon.

Benguet Provincial Police Chief Sr. Supt. Lyndon Mencio said the cache was recovered from an empty house in Tapao West in Upper Quirino Hill. 

Police found 19 sacks of ammonium nitrate at 25 kilos each and several boxes of blasting caps.

Mencio said that they were able to apprehend one suspect, reportedly a small-scale miner. His identity was not provided as they still have to ascertain if there are other suspects.

He said that only a portion of the cache stolen from the mining depot last Sunday was recovered.

The theft

On the morning of September 2, police in Itogon town said unidentified men robbed a magazine depot owned by Mrs. Nena Camolo Caccam at Camisong, Loacan in Itogon.

The suspects reportedly cut the interlink fence then dug into the walls of the three storage facilities.

Caccam said that the missing items in their depot included 55 sacks of ammonium nitrate worth P99,000; three boxes of ordinary blasting caps worth P576,000 at 10,000 caps per box; eleven boxes of safety fuse worth P252,000; four boxes of detonating cord worth P128,000 and one box of dynamite emulsion worth P4,800. 

The whole stash, totaling P1,169,000, was said to have been contained in two vehicles, according to the police. – Rappler.com