Philippine presidential palace says blast not bomb
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-20 14:07

An explosion on the grounds of the Philippine presidential palace on Monday was probably caused by chemicals in a trash bin set off by a lit cigarette, not a bomb, the head of security told reporters.

"Nobody was injured," press undersecretary Isabel de Leon told reporters, adding President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was inside the palace at the time.

The army tightened security on Sunday after finding a bomb in its top military academy, one of the alleged targets of a plot to overthrow and possibly kill Arroyo, who survived an impeachment attempt last year over allegations of vote-rigging and graft.

Witnesses said the ground shook and a green rubber trash bin was shredded by the blast, which brought government workers from their offices.

"There are no indications of an explosive. We suspect that some chemicals have been compacted in the garbage can," Delfin Bangit, head of the Presidential Security Group, told reporters.

"It may have been triggered by something like a cigarette butt."

In Manila, police were already on maximum alert over the plot and expectations of large protests planned for February 24, the day before the country marks the 20th anniversary of the "people power" revolt that ousted Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

Last week, Reuters reported the plot involved a mass escape of mutineers originally set for January, hostage-taking at last weekend's gathering of military commanders, occupying army camps and removing Arroyo.

On Sunday, the commander of the police's elite force denied rumours his men were planning to storm the main police camp in Manila and hold commanders hostage as part of the plot.

Talk of a plot by some elements of the military has been growing since the escape from an army camp in January of four alleged leaders of a bloodless, one-day mutiny in 2003.

Rumours of unrest are common in the Philippines after a dozen coup attempts in the past 20 years and popular uprisings backed by the army that toppled Marcos in 1986 and Joseph Estrada as president in 2001.