(Eagle News) –Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has said reports a Yemeni couple who committed suicide bombing was behind the blasts at a Jolo, Sulu cathedral have yet to be validated.
He said for this, a body part found at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel cathedral will undergo DNA testing.
“(May) kalahati ng mukha ng tao nasa SOCO (Scene of the Crime Operations) (that) you cannot identify, nobody (is claiming him or her yet)…So we’re trying to have his DNA tested para malaman natin (so we will know) how we’re going to find out. Maybe we can find out the nationality, Pilipino ba o foreigner, kasi may nagsasabi na foreigner daw yung nag-suicide bombing diyan,” Lorenzana said, noting that “wala pa namang Pilipino na nag-suicide bombing eh.”
He said they were also looking into the report of a survivor, who was supposedly sitting four seats away from the first blast inside the cathedral, about a “distraught” woman who left behind a package and then left.
“Hindi naman sinabi na yun ang nakita nyang sumabog pero yun ang nakita nya,” Lorenzana said.
According to Lorenzana, if what the woman said was true, “that definitely is not suicide bombing.”
“…(So) these are all things that we have to validate,” Lorenzana added.
On Wednesday, Jan. 30, four people who were earlier tagged in the Jolo blasts surfaced to clear their names.
An 18-year-old man and a teacher said they were merely buying medicine from a pharmacy when the blasts occurred.
They also denied knowing the man seen with them in footage from a closed-circuit television camera in the blasts site.
Later in the day, a 17-year-old boy and a 24-year-old man also surfaced.
