A grenade blast blew off a house made of bamboo, Wednesday evening, in Sitio Bangkal, Brgy. Old Namangka, Mabinay, Negros Oriental.

The police said yesterday that the owner, Domeciano Escribano, 52, a farmer survived the blast.

Investigation revealed that at about 8 p.m. Wednesday, Escribano was alone in his house fixing his flashlight when he noticed that his dog was barking furiously, prompting him to put out his kerosene lamp and check outside his house.

Escribano said he noticed a strong thud caused by an object that hit the outer wall of his house, followed by an explosion that shattered his bamboo house. He said he then heard two successive bursts of gunfire and went to his son's house nearby.

Police recovered grenade shrapnel from the house.

Escribano told the Mabinay police that the motive could be agrarian-related, because his son is a farmer beneficiary of a sugarcane plantation now subject of a petition pending at the office of the Municipal Agrarian Reform Office.

Meanwhile, two of five suspects in the April 9, 2007 ambush in La Libertad are still at-large despite efforts to arrest and put them in jail, police provincial director S/Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe said.

Buenafe said Boy Dorimon and Tikyo Manait are in their list of wanted persons, with a reward money of P50,000 each for information leading to their capture.*RG

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