ZAMBOANGA CITY (Updated 9:46 a.m.) -- Investigators have already established the identity of a suspected bomber who died on the spot in Zamboanga airport on Thursday night.
Zamboanga City Police Office (ZCPO) Director Edwin de Ocampo identified the suspect as Reynaldo Apilado.
De Ocampo said Friday that Apilado was identified through the Social Security System (SSS) and Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative (Zamcelco) identification cards (IDs) that were recovered at the blast site.
He said Apilado was a resident of Kalambuan Homeowners Association, an urban poor group, at Sitio Caragasan, Barangay Maasin, 13 kilometers west of this city.
Apilado, who worked as a carpenter, was also identified by the president of the Kalambuan Homeowners Association, he said.
Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat said they were also able to see the video in the airport premises that the bomb was carried by Apilado.
Although investigators said the airport's closed-circuit television cameras were not working, Lobregat said they were still able to see the video although it was not clear, adding they just keep on playing it again and again.
The bomb explosion took place at 6:15 p.m. Thursday outside the arrival area of the Zamboanga International Airport while the passengers of a commercial place that arrived from Manila were coming out.
The incident resulted in the death of two persons that include Apilado and Jimil Yacob. Twenty-four others were also injured in the incident, including Sulu Governor Abdusaakur Tan and a British national.
Apilado’s torso was in a wreck as a result of the impact of the bomb explosion.
Tan believed he was the target of the suspect.
"I believe I was the target," Tan told reporters, saying the device went off just a meter away from him. "I saw the flash very clearly."
Tan, along with son Maimbung, Sulu Mayor Samier Tan, was on the plane that arrived minutes earlier from Manila. He sustained a small wound near his ribs. He was later discharged from the hospital.
An enemy of the Abu Sayyaf militants, the Sulu governor has been targeted before. He escaped unharmed when a bomb-rigged motorcycle exploded near his convoy in Sulu in May last year. A town mayor and at least three security escorts were wounded in that attack.
The group behind the attack is not yet established, and investigators could not say if the incident was a case of premature explosion or suicide bombing as the investigation is not yet pointed to the triggering device.
They will also look on the possibility on the involvement of the victims in the incident.
US Ambassador to the Philippines Harry K. Tomas Jr., who was supposed to visit Zamboanga City on Friday, postponed the trip, saying it would be a burden to security personnel investigating the attack. He offered US assistance in the probe.
"I deplore this heinous crime that victimized ordinary travelers," US Ambassador Harry Thomas said in a statement. He said he decided "to postpone my travel tomorrow in order to avoid distracting" police from investigating the attack.
Thomas had been due to fly to the airport with Gloria Steele, the new director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAid), to visit some US-funded projects in the city.
Thomas and Steele are scheduled to visit the Halfway House that is jointly run by the Visayan Forum Foundation and the Philippine Ports Authority, where the US Ambassador will witness the signing of a memorandum of agreement among members of the Zamboanga City Sea-Based Anti-Trafficking Task Force.
The US envoy was also set to join in the signing of two memoranda of understanding on tuberculosis treatment between private sector partners and the City Government of Zamboanga.
President Benigno Aquino III "condemned the violence" and "instructed the relevant authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice," said his spokesman, Edwin Lacierda.
A press conference led by Philippine National Police Chief Jesus Verzosa is conducted in this city as of this posting Friday. (Bong Garcia/Sunnex)