(CNN Philippines) — Residents living in the vicinity of the old Iloilo Airport were ordered to vacate their homes after construction workers dug up a 1,000-pound unexploded World War II aerial bomb.
Workers were digging through the area in Mandurriao District Tuesday morning (April 14) when they noticed an unidentified hard object.
Realizing it was a bomb, they immediately called the police.
The members of the Explosives and Ordnance Division (EOD) who responded also found a smaller fragmentation bomb in the area.
Should the aerial bomb explode, the blast can affect houses up to 300 meters away from the site, the EOD said.
The discovery halted construction work at the Iloilo Business Park for two days.
During World War II, Iloilo was a battle site between Filipino guerrillas and U.S. troops against the Japanese forces who then controlled the city.
Supt. Gilbert Gorero, spokesperson of the Iloilo City Police Office, told CNN Philippines that the site was swampy during the war, which could be one factor why the bombs did not explode then.
The bomb was safely detonated on Thursday (April 16) at Barangay Bugo, San Remegio in Antique.
But police advised the business park’s developer Megaworld Corp. to first scan the area with metal detectors before continuing with the construction as there could still be other unexploded bombs left undetected in the area.
CNN Philippines’ string correspondent Elyrose Naorbe contributed to this report.
