Head of SAF ordered investigation on the explosion of firing grenade after the incident happened in PNPA

Miami
November 11, 2008
Story: Head of SAF ordered investigation on the explosion of firing grenade after the incident happened in PNPA

The Philippine National Police Special Action Force head Chief Supt. Leocadio Santiago, Jr. ordered its personnel to stop using their issued rifle grenade pending the result of the investigation after one of each rifle grenade accidentally explodes Monday night that lead to the death of one and injuring several others.

Santiago described the incident as “a freak accident that nobody wanted.” He also said that this is the first time that such incident happened.

He also ordered for the immediate investigation of the incident to know what exactly happened during the training and why it accidentally exploded.

Based on the initial investigation, the training is being held at the PNPA firing range in Camp General Mariano Catañeda in Silang, Cavite. SAF Commando class 48-2008 student Police inspector Frederick Sa-ao fired the rifle grenade from his M16A1 weapon when it prematurely exploded at gunpoint, wounding him instantly.

SAF Instructor PO2 Mano Carido, 15 meters away from the explosion, was supervising the commando students when he was finally hit in the chest by a shrapnel which cause his death.

As explained, a rifle grenade is inserted at the end of the rifle barrel and is triggered upon firing the rifle where it is supposed to launch away from the rifle and hit a distant target and exploding thereat. But in this case, this does not happened.

On the final report of SIlang Police Station, 12 were only injured and only one was dead.

The said training is part of the module of the SAF Commando Cpurse, a foundation training for every SAF Police personnel.