DAVAO CITY, 25 May — Who was that foreigner really who got maimed by an explosive that accidentally went off in his hotel room here last week?
Police had earlier identified the man as Michael Terrence Meiring, 65, from Britain. He was supposedly in this southern city for a treasure hunt. Davao, after all, is fabled to be where Japanese soldiers buried part of their loot at the close of World War II.
Last Sunday, the man was reportedly whisked away from the Davao Doctor’s Hospital by three United States officials and brought to the Davao International Airport, where a chartered plane was waiting to take him to Manila where he was scheduled for surgery for his injured legs.
According to a local newspaper, US Vice Consul Michael Newbill himself and two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) fetched Meiring from Room 261 of the hospital.
The FBI agents were said to have carried high-powered firearms. They showed their identification cards to the hospital physicians and instructed them not to let anyone know that they were taking Meiring out, said the report.
What has made local authorities and media more curious was that the explosives found in the man’s hotel room were no ordinary dynamite. A police bomb expert claimed that it was a powerful high-tech explosive, which a mere treasure hunter would not need.
Sources said the device contained ammonium nitrate, electronic apparatus, and other explosive materials which can cause heavy explosion and damage.
The police said they recovered two boxes which reportedly contained Meiring’s “highly-confidential” documents.
Bomb experts theorized that the cover of the other box could have hit the box that contained the explosive and triggered the explosion. Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said they knew little about the mysterious person. He said the man was an American and that the FBI agents may have been interested in him because of American federal notes seen in his room at the Evergreen Hotel.
He said the taking of Meiring from the hospital “ has the knowledge of the authorities in Manila.”
Davao City police chief Conrado Laza stressed that they had no legal basis yet to hold the foreigner if though a complain had been filed against the same blast victim for “illegal possession of explosives and reckless imprudence resulting to damage of properties.”
“We still don’t have power to bar those persons fetching Michael Meiring from the (hospital) because we would have yet to wait for an arrest warrant from the court,” Laza said.
Laza said it is the court that will issue the arrest warrant by a week’s time to authorize the his command to take back Meiring from Manila to face criminal charges.
Local police officials claimed that they remain clueless on Meiring’s real identity, especially with the way the US Embassy and the FBI whisked him out of Davao.
“We are still looking into the real identity of this man,” Laza said.
