By Divina Suson/Philippine News Agency
MARAWI CITY — The retrieval operations for unexploded explosives are ongoing inside the “most affected area” (MAA) here following the discovery of a an aerial bomb near a residential area, an official of the National Housing Authority (NHA) said Thursday.
NHA’s Roderick Ibañez, head of Marawi Project Management Office, said the “unexploded ordnance” or UXO was accidentally discovered by the clearing team on Tuesday (July 23) amid the ongoing rehabilitation works in the area.
Ibañez said the bomb was confirmed by a follow-up verification using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and sniffing dogs, with the help of the Explosive and Ordnance Team of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
Ibañez said five UXOs have so far been retrieved since EDDMARI Construction started its rehabilitation works in the MAA on March 1 this year.
Lt. Col. Elmer Oamil, commander of the Joint Task Group Builder based inside the MAA, said troops of the Army’s 553rd Engineer Battalion have already excavated nine meters deep of earth but faces difficulty in retrieving the unexploded ordnance.
“We cannot yet identify if it is 250 or 500-pounder bomb. The excavation is very difficult, we have to do it very slowly because it is very critical to the lives of our troops who do the excavation,” Oamil said.
The Philippine Air Force(PAF) reported it has dropped 70 bombs that did not explode during aerial bombings against Islamic State-inspired militants in the 2017 siege.
The PAF earlier said the bombs consisted of 110-pounder, 250-pounder, and 500-pounder ordnance. Twenty-nine UXOs have already been retrieved and disposed of even before the rehabilitation started, PAF said.
The latest UXO retrieval involving a 500-pounder bomb was on June 26 and was detonated the same day.
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