Manila: Security services have yet to conclude that a supposed Indonesian “couple” were the ones responsible for the devastating bomb attack at a cathedral in Sulu last January 21.
“Identification (of the bombers) is in the process but may take time. The Indonesian government is willing to assist. It is officially confirmed that it’s a case of suicide bombing,” Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said.
Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte said the government has already identified persons responsible for the bombing of the Mount Carmel Cathedral in Sulu provinces’ capital, Jolo.
The President said an Indonesian couple were responsible for the attack---so far the most devastating in Sulu in recent years with 22 people killed and nearly a hundred wounded.
Indonesia authorities had said that it is already cooperating with Philippine security officials to ascertain the identity of the bombers and to determine if these were really indeed Indonesian as the President claimed.
It can be recalled that two improvised explosive devices detonated during a Sunday mass being held at the cathedral. One blew up close to the pew while the second exploded as the parishioners were rushing to the exits.
Authorities said this particular tactic was employed by militants for maximum destruction and was very similar to the bomb attack carried out in January 25, 2015 that killed two people and injured dozens of others in Zamboanga City also in Western Mindanao region.
Foreigners involved?
According to Año, although militants in the Philippines had carried out bombing attacks in the past, this could be one of the few occasions when foreigners were involved.
Indonesian bombers have been arrested and eliminated in the Philippines, but these are mostly in Central Mindanao and not in the Western Mindanao region that includes Sulu.
Año said there has been no record of any suicide bombing in the Philippines undertaken by home grown Filipino terrorists. This gave rise to the assumption that the Jolo bombers were of foreign origin, particularly Indonesians.
The Philippines had been contending with the entry of illegals from Indonesia and these were using the Davao peninsula as a jump off point, but Sulu is in the western part of Mindanao.
National Police chief, Director General Oscar Albayalde said investigators have yet to come up with conclusive evidence but separately charges were filed against seven individuals tagged for involvement in the bomb attack nevertheless.
A key suspect in the attack at the Jolo Cathedral Mukammar L. Pae/Kammah L. Pae alias Kammah was arrested along with four others on Sunday Feb. 3.
The bombing of the cathedral in Sulu came just days after the province turned down a vote for inclusion the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BARMM), the proposed entity that will replace the more than three decades-old Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Other areas in Lanao proposed to be included in the BARMM are slated to vote in the plebiscite on Wednesday.
