COTABATO CITY (October 14) — A scrap-metal junkyard in Jolo, Sulu, contained a potentially deadly cache of 93 unexploded explosive projectiles, including a 500-pound World War II bomb, prompting a joint operation by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), military and police.
PCG ordnance personnel recovered the explosives on Monday, October 12, from a junk shop in Barangay Alat after villagers alerted authorities to the munitions piled in the area.
The recovered unexploded ordnance (UXO) included cannon, mortar and grenade projectiles, as well as the massive bomb originally designed to be dropped from aircraft onto ground targets.
Army Maj. Gen. Jose Vladimir Cagara, acting commander of the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom), said Tuesday that the operation was carried out with military and police support following the community’s tip.
The recovery removed the explosives from the junkyard, but their final disposal was still pending. Cagara said the munitions would be taken to a military-guarded site in Jolo for proper disposal by qualified ordnance personnel.
Authorities are also investigating how the explosives ended up in a business that buys scrap metal and recyclable waste. Local executives said the junk shop owner was undergoing questioning by Sulu police investigators and Army intelligence personnel.
The discovery raises concerns about the risks posed by old munitions in commercial junkyards, where workers and nearby residents could be exposed to accidental explosions.
Sulu was a major battleground during the decades-long conflict between government forces and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) rebels in the 1970s and 1980s. However, authorities have yet to confirm whether the explosives recovered in the Jolo junkyard are remnants of that conflict or came from another source.
Investigators must establish the munitions’ origin and how they reached the junkyard. The circumstances of their acquisition, storage and handling also remain subject to investigation.
