Two minor explosions occurred a couple of hours apart in Quezon City and Mandaluyong City early Monday, and authorities are trying to figure out whether they were meant to embarrass the government ahead of the scheduled visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week.

Malacañang said the public should remain calm yet vigilant following the latest bombing incidents, reiterating that the government is in full control of the security situation.

Deputy Presidential Spokesman Anthony Golez said security forces were directed to run after the perpetrators. The police, he added, are also trying to find out if the Monday dawn blasts are connected with previous explosions in the metropolis.

The first explosion happened at around 3 a.m. in front of the San Miguel Corporation (SMC) headquarters located at the corner of Julia Vargas and San Miguel Avenue in Ortigas Center.

No one was hurt or killed in the explosion and only the lights of the building signage were damaged.

Investigators believe that the explosive used was not planted but merely hurled from afar.

Investigators are still determining the type of explosive used since they are having difficulty gathering bomb components at the scene.

In Quezon City, the entrance to the Puregold Shopping Center along Commonwealth Avenue was also rocked by an explosion at around 5 a.m.

Witnesses told the QC Police District (QCPD) Bomb Squad that before the incident they saw a man hurl something contained in a plastic bag towards the entrance of the establishment.

The suspect was reportedly on board a taxicab and alighted to plant the explosive, but witnesses were not able to get the taxi’s license plate number.

Security guards of the establishment on the other hand told police that before the explosion, they saw smoke coming out of the plastic bag, leading investigators to theorize that the explosive had a fuse.

Golez said the Philippine National Police is on top of the situation, adding that it is difficult to presume that the explosions were launched by groups out to sow terror with the approach of the elections. He also could not say if the blasts were meant to embarrass the government ahead of the visit of Clinton.

“This may just be an isolated drug-related activity. Maybe a person high on drugs set off the bomb,” he added.

To ensure public safety, he said the Department of Interior and Local Government will continue to upgrade the capability and equipment of the police to meet international standards.

Meanwhile, QCPD director Chief Superintendent Elmo San Diego assured that there is no need for the police to raise alert levels.

“We will not heighten our alert levels since this will only unduly alarm people. The blasts are not connected to any terrorist act,” San Diego assured.

“The explosions that have taken place were not intended to harm anyone nor cause large damage,” he said, noting that no shrapnel were added to the explosive device.

Superintendent Nestor Abalos, chief of QCPD’s District Intelligence Division (DID), admitted that up to now they still do not have any information as to who is behind the series of explosions in the metropolis.

San Diego said he plans to meet with intelligence officers of both the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) within the week.

“Hopefully we will get information over the explosions that have been taking place,” San Diego said.

Meanwhile, Inspector Arnulfo Franco, chief of the QCPD’s Explosive and Ordnance Division (EOD), believes that one group was behind the explosion at Puregold and the two blasts last October 30 at One Burgundy Plaza building also in Quezon City and the Union Bank Plaza Towers in Pasig City.

Franco explained that the explosive devices used in those places involved a time fuse.

Franco said the explosive in the Puregold blast was in a plastic container that was placed in a blue Goldilocks plastic bag.

Citing accounts of supermarket security guard Joel Galmorin, he said two men were involved in the explosion and both rode a cab.

Franco said the taxi stopped in front of the supermarket and one of the men alighted from the vehicle, climbed the stairs to the front entrance of the supermarket and tossed the item.

The plastic bag then emitted smoke and in five seconds exploded while the suspects fled aboard the taxi.

Franco noted that last Sunday, a man aboard a motorcycle was seen by the security passing by the supermarket several times.

The Philippine Bomb Data Center (PBDC) is still profiling the explosive device used at the SMC headquarters.

Jesus Cabigyan of Megaforce Integrated Security Agency, the perimeter guard who heard the loud explosion, called in the incident and said that it caused minimal damage.

"The PBDC is currently studying the samples taken from the site to further determine if this explosion was connected to the one that happened in Commonwealth Avenue today," said MCPO Senior Superintendent Carlos De Sagun. (With reports from Genalyn Kabiling and Carlo S. Suerte Felipe)