PNP: Probers yet to confirm if suicide bombers perpetrated Jolo blasts

Senior Supt. Bernard Banac, Philippine National Police spokesperson. INQUIRER.net file photo / Cathrine Gonzales

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) clarified on Friday that investigators have yet to confirm if suicide bombers were the ones who perpetrated the twin blasts in Jolo, Sulu.

PNP spokesperson Senior Supt. Bernard Banac said investigators have yet to release the results of the DNA test on recovered body parts in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, but said investigation points at possible suicide bombing as angle behind the blasts.

“Ang lahat ng mga ebidensyang nakalap at mga testimonya na naibigay na ay patungo na sa atin nang nalalaman na posibleng may suicide bombing na naganap. Lahat ng ito ay hintayin lang natin na makumpirma paglabas ng DNA testing na ginagawa ngayon,” Banac told reporters in Camp Crame.

(All evidence gathered and testimonies given now suggest that there could have been a possible suicide bombing that took place. Let us wait for all of these to be confirmed after the results of the DNA testing being conducted.)

According to Banac, witnesses told investigators that a suspicious woman entered the cathedral before the fatal blasts.

Senior Supt. Pablo Labra, director of the Sulu Provincial Police Office, also said in a press conference in Sulu, said that the woman wore a gray jacket and carried what looked like a bag, citing testimonies of witnesses.

He said people in the cathedral know all churchgoers in the area, except the said woman.

Labra also said that witnesses did not identify the woman’s possible nationality. /jpv

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