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Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Cops release sketch of suspected bomber
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- The police have come out with the cartographic sketch of one of the three people responsible for the two explosions that rocked Zamboanga City on Sunday morning.
Western Mindanao Police Regional Director Jaime Caringal also ordered on Monday police forces in the region to tighten security in all places of worship, malls, and other vital installations following the bomb attack.
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The three suspected bombers are believed to be members of the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group.
Zamboanga City Police Office (ZCPO) officer-in-charge Jonathan Perez on Monday disclosed that the cartographic sketch was made through the descriptions given by four witnesses who saw the bombers before the first bomb exploded.
Perez said the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf bandits remain as the primary suspects in the two bombing incidents.
"Actually there are threats in our AOR (area of responsibility). They are the ones (Abu Sayyaf bandits) responsible," Perez disclosed in a press conference Monday.
One of the three suspected bombers is male and described to be more than 30 years old, five feet and five inches in height, slim build, and with brown complexion.
Witnesses told police that two of the bombers carrying a bag and sports gear entered the compound of the Immaculate Concepcion Metropolitan Cathedral just after the gate was opened to allow entry to churchgoers while the third one stayed outside and remained seated on a motorcycle.
The police learned that one of the men immediately proceeded upstairs where the mass is being held, but rushed downstairs when the lights on the second floor were put on.
The second man, who was wearing a cap, blocked the path of one of the witnesses who tried to tail the first man and engaged the witness in a conversation when they met halfway at the church's spiral stairs.
This, the police believed, gave the first man the opportunity to plant the bomb beneath an Isuzu pick-up parked just below the spiral stairs at the church's right wing.
The two men were later seen rushing out of the church compound and boarding a motorcycle driven by a waiting companion.
A few minutes later or at around 4:25 a.m., the first bomb exploded damaging the parked Isuzu pick-up owned by one of the churchgoers and the Mitsubishi Adventure of Fr. Totong Soliva, one of the three administrators of the Immaculate Concepcion Metropolitan Cathedral Church.
The second bomb, which the police believed was supposed to be planted also in the church, exploded in front of a building that houses a government office and a bank along Veterans Avenue, 1.5 kilometers east of the cathedral.
The police said the bombers panicked when some people at the church began to notice their odd behavior so they decided to abandon the second bomb at Veterans Avenue.
No one was killed or injured in the two explosions except for the damage to the two vehicles and glass panels of the church. Estimated damaged to property has yet to be determined.
Task Force Zamboanga (TFZ) chief Colonel Darwin Guerra said they have coordinated with the military and police authorities in the nearby provinces to help them identify and arrest the suspects.
Superintendent Jose Bayani Gucela, chief of the Police Regional Office (PRO) Western Mindanao explosive and ordnance demolition (EOD) and information officer, said the type of improvised explosive devices (IED) used in Sunday's bombings in Zamboanga City is similar to those used in bomb attacks in Central Mindanao, as well as in Jolo, Sulu.
The explosion in the church was triggered by cellular phone using 81-milimeter mortar rounds as the main charge based on the recovered explosive components at the blast site by responding EOD elements of PRO Western Mindanao and ZCPO.
The IED that was used in Veterans Avenue was fashioned out of three rounds of 60-mm mortar shells with a triggering device similar to the first bomb that exploded at the church.
Western Mindanao Police Regional Director Jaime Caringal Monday has ordered forces in the region to tighten security in all places of worship, malls, and other vital installations. (Bong P. Garcia/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cebu. (April 15, 2008 issue)
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