THE Philippine National Police said that they have at least two persons of interest in the bombing of a Catholic mass at the Mindanao State University in Marawi that resulted to the death of four people and injured dozens of others.
According to PNP spokesperson PCol. Jean Fajardo, the two involved were also involved in previous bomb attacks in other parts of Mindanao.
“Base sa mga nakalap na ebidesya, including yung witnesses accounts, mayroon na silang tinitingnan na 2 persons of interests at base doon sa mga pinakita nilang larawan ay may mga positive identification doon sa POIs (persons of interest),” she said.
Earlier, the Islamic State group had claimed the responsibility for the MSU explosion in Marawi.
Marawi is the country’s largest Muslim city, which was besieged by militant groups in 2017.
Earlier, security officials said that the said blast from an improvised explosive device (IED) blast.
They said that the IED could be a retaliatory attack due to the series of military operations.
“Doon sa possible involvement ng foreign terrorists, alam natin previously may mga nare-report tayong presence ng foreign terrorist individuals diyan sa ibang area ng Mindanao,” Fajardo said.
“So it may be a possibility based sa ishinare sa atin ng SND (Secretary of National Defense), but on the part of the PNP we will be basing our investigation based on the evidence na nako-collate natin including mga witnesses accounts,” she added.
Authorities are also looking at videos.
“Wala silang narecover na mga CCTV footages that might help them in identifying the possible suspects, but doon sa labas ng MSU nagkakalap sila ng mga footages para makatulong sa ginagawang imbestigation,” Fajardo added.
