‘Persons of interest’ in Jolo bombing clear names – mayor
ZAMBOANGA CITY — The “persons of interest” whom the military said were seen on security cameras acting suspiciously before and after twin bombs went off at a Catholic church in Jolo, Sulu province, on Sunday were not the bombers but three students and a teacher in a school in the city, Mayor Kherkar Tan said on Wednesday.
“These men seen on CCTV (closed-circuit television) fleeing away from the blasts in the cathedral were actually students [and a teacher],” Tan told the Inquirer.
Clearing their names
“I was informed that they reported to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) this morning to clear themselves. Three are students and one is a teacher,” Tan said.
Col. Gerry Besana, public affairs officer of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, also reported that the four men went to the Sulu Provincial Police Office to clear their names.
The military identified two of the men as Alshaber Arbi, 18, a Grade 11 student at Kalingalan Caluang National High School who was seen in the video sporting a hair bun, and Gerry Isnajil, a teacher in the same school who was seen in the video wearing a maroon cap and carrying a backpack.
Arbi and Isnajil were accompanied to the police office by Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan II and Kalingalan Caluang Mayor Peping Halun.
They said they came forward to say they had nothing to do with the bombings at the cathedral, according to the military.
The military said the other two men seen in the video were Alsimar Mohammad, 24, and a boy whose name was not disclosed because he was a minor.
They had sought help from the head of Barangay Bus-Bus in Jolo in going to the police to clear themselves.
Mohammad and the boy said they were buying medicine for a sick elder who was confined at the Integrated Provincial Health Office when the bombs went off at the cathedral.
“It was a good decision for them to come to us. They trusted us and submitted themselves for questioning,” said Senior Supt. Pablo Labra, Sulu police chief.
Asked if the authorities would apologize for the error, Labra said, “I don’t consider it that way.”
He said the release of the video showing the four had helped.
“In our investigation, we consider everything. We need to do everything to solve this,” he added.
The twin blasts at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on Sunday killed 21 people and wounded nearly 100 others.
President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday that the attack was carried out by two suicide bombers.
The military, however, said the bombs were triggered by remote control.
Col. Noel Detoyato, chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ public affairs office, said two survivors had reported seeing a woman leaving a bag in a pew in the fifth row from the back of the cathedral’s nave and hurriedly leaving before the first explosion.
“That’s the method of the deployment [of the bomb] so it’s not a suicide bombing,” Detoyato told reporters.
Just a theory
He said no one could have ascertained how the second bomb, which went off outside the church two minutes after the first one had exploded, had been placed because commotion broke out after the first explosion.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said, however, that the second explosion could have been a suicide attack.
On Wednesday, he said suicide bombing remained a theory until DNA tests on recovered body parts could confirm it. —With reports from Jeannette I. Andrade And Jaymee T. Gamil
