Funeral attendants take out the body of Ruben Genterone who died of a rifle grenade blast in Sitio Tambisan, Barangay Tisa, Cebu City. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)
The military is willing to cooperate with the police’s investigation into the death of a tricycle driver who discovered a rifle grenade at a vacant lot near his home in Sitio Tambisan, Barangay Tisa in Cebu City last Monday.
“Gusto namo mahibalo asa gikan ang rifle grenade kung government arsenal ba or somewhere else. Aron dili na mautro kaning panghitabo (We want to know if it came from the government’s arsenal or somewhere else. So this situation will not happen again),” Centcom spokesman Lt. Col. Luzmindo Mamauag said.
He said rifle grenades are only issued to soldiers and these cannot be bought nor given to civilians.
Mamauag said they wondered how a rifle grenade is left in a vacant lot.
The tricycle driver Ruben Genterone died after the grenade exploded in his hands, the Cebu City police’s homicide section said.
The police said Genterone’s family saw him fiddling with the rifle grenade before it exploded.
Genterone found the rifle grenade at a vacant lot just behind their house.
The family’s neighbors claimed there were soldiers living in the area.
Mamauag said the military had not issued rifle grenades for a long time.
“(If we’ll find out there is a soldier involved), they will be sanctioned and an investigation will follow,” Mamauag said.
He called on the public to report to the police any grenade or bomb in their area.