The individuals behind the violence that marred the final day of the Bar exams in a Manila university Sunday afternoon have been identified, the Supreme Court said Monday. Court administrator Jose Midas Marquez, however, said investigations by the Manila Police District and the National Bureau of Investigation still have to confirm whether the persons implicated are indeed responsible for the alleged throwing of an improvised explosive device (IED) to a group of student revelers. “From eyewitness accounts, immediately after the throwing, there was a chase. The one who threw the IED was actually seen and was chased by some of the students in the area. There was a scuffle, but unfortunately he escaped. We have eyewitness' accounts and we have turned this over to the investigators,” Marquez said at a news briefing. At least 47 people, most of them students, were hurt in the incident that occurred near the De La Salle University campus in Taft Avenue, Manila. Marquez refused to identify the alleged perpetrators. “I cannot reveal yet [their identities]. They have been identified. There are faces already and we have eyewitnesses who have positively seen the ensuing incident,” he said. Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim has already ordered MPD officer-in-charge Chief Superintendent Roberto Rongavilla to “drop everything and focus on identifying and arresting those behind the bombing incident.” Rongavilla said the unidentified man who lobbed the explosive could have used pillbox, a Molotov bomb or fragmentation grenade. Experts from the Scene of the Crime Office (SOCO) said they have to wait for at least five days to determine the type of explosive used in the incident.
