A Box of Fish

A month ago, a Philippine Airlines twin-engined DC-3 exploded and fell into the sea between Daet and Manila; its crew of four and nine passengers perished. Suspecting that a bomb had been hidden in the plane, the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation last week picked up Gavino Largo, an escaped convict, and Amadeo Salazar, his friend. From their partial confessions the Bureau pieced together a grisly tale.

The two saboteurs had been hired for 185 pesos ($92.50) by a pair of illicit lovers who were anxious to get rid of the spouse of one who was a passenger on the plane. Largo had taken a box of fish to the airline office, where it was weighed in and tagged. He insisted on taking the box to the airfield. Between the office and the airfield he was met by Salazar, who transferred the tags to a similar box containing dynamite and a time fuse crudely made from an old timing device used in permanent-wave machines. The fuse, originally set to go off in 15 minutes, had been adjusted by a watchmaker who changed the time to 45 minutes. They put the box aboard the plane.

Last week, the Daet prosecutor still kept the names of the murderous lovers a secret because he was looking for enough evidence to implicate them along with Largo and Salazar.

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