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From abs-cbnnews.com -

Garbage can explodes inside Malacañan

A plastic garbage container exploded inside the Malacañan compound Monday morning, ANC reported.
ANC correspondent Timi Nubla said garbage container used by palace gardeners exploded some 20 feet across Mabini Hall near Gate 7 of the presidential palace at around 12:05 p.m.
She said the explosion toppled a coconut tree and was loud enough to be heard inside the Malacañan Press Office some 20 feet away.
ABS-CBN correspondent Ruby Bernardo Tayag said the explosion occurred minutes before a scheduled luncheon between President Arroyo and officials of the Intellectual Property Office.
Brig. Gen. Delfin Bangit, chief of the Presidential Security Group, said no bomb was found after conducting several sweeps in the area.
He added that the explosion could have been caused by a mixture of cleaning chemicals.
On Saturday, military sources revealed the discovery of a bomb at the Philippine Military Academy during a reunion of academy alumni.
The sources told Reuters that the device, loaded with about 2 kilos of TNT, was found late on Saturday hidden in a clutch bag near the PMA parade ground, where President Arroyo was meant to attend an annual reunion this weekend.
The academy's superintendent declined to confirm the discovery.
"We are still investigating," Brig. Gen. Leopoldo Maligalig told Reuters by telephone.
Mrs. Arroyo, who is commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, skipped the gathering after a coup plot by fugitive mutineers was revealed last week.

Philippine presidential palace says blast not bomb

MANILA, Feb 20 (Reuters) - 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 Feb. 24, the day before the country marks the 20th anniversary of the "people power" revolt that ousted dictator 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.