Dig deeper, mayor urges blast probers

Mayor Celso Lobregat yesterday urged police authorities to dig deeper to establish the real motive and identities of the perpetrators of two bomb explosions here on Thursday night.

Seven people, not six as initially reported, were wounded when bombs blew up two hours apart inside a Rural Transit bus in Barangay Guiwan at around 9:40 p.m. and near a mosque in Barangay (village) Suterville.

Citing witnesses’ accounts, Senior Superintendent Jaime Mejia, city police chief, had earlier said the bus bombing could be the handiwork of Abu Sayyaf members.

But Lobregat said the police should also consider other angles, such as “extortion, personal grudge and even politics.”

“There might be groups out to discredit this administration,” he said, without elaborating.

As of yesterday, the mayor said, the police were still trying to identify the suspects based on computer-generated images as described by the witnesses.

Lobregat said the two bombs were of the same origin and make. These were improvised explosive devices packed with nails and other bits of metals, and remotely detonated, he said. Julie S. Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao