Two explosions rocked two urban areas near Manila in Luzon early Sunday, wounding seven people, as the Philippine police and military were on heightened alert before the upcoming Independence Day celebration on Monday, police said.

The first blast took place in the southern Lipa city in Batangas province where two men lobbed a grenade in front of Lipa City public market at 5:00 a.m., wounding seven people who were rushed to nearby hospitals for treatment of shrapnel wounds, according to a police report.

The second explosion ripped through a bus which served as a mobile police station and jail at 5:30 a.m. in the Manila suburb of Quezon City, shattering its window glasses and piercing holes through its body, as it burned just barely a minute after three policemen luckily left it for a while to take coffee in nearby store, police said.

Police said intelligence reports showed that both blasts in Lipa and Quezon cities could be the handiworks of destabilizers out to foment further wave of momentum to overthrow embattled President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Government investigators said they also looked into possibilities that Al Qaida-linked terrorists, New People's Army rebels and criminal syndicates could also be involved in the said blasts.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police raised their alert levels on Thursday ahead of the country's 108th Independence Day celebrations on Monday, June 12, by implementing a tight security cordon around President Arroyo and other top government officials.

Source: Xinhua