PNP says Jolo police enjoy ” full confidence” despite blasts

August 27, 2020

The chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Thursday said they maintain their full confidence to Jolo Municipal Police Station after calls for the relief of their officials following the twin blasts in Barangay Walled City last August 24.

“Unless there is sufficient evidence establishing criminal involvement or administrative lapses leading to the attack, the PNP maintains full confidence in our ground personnel,” Police General Archie Francisco Gamboa said.

Gamboa directed PNP- Special Action Force (SAF) director  Major General Clifton Empiso and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region director Brig. Gen Manuel Abu to augment police forces in Sulu.

He also issued an order directing a deeper probe of Jolo blasts by mobilizing the Philippine Bomb Data Center (PBDC) and Crime Laboratory for technical support to ongoing investigation.

PBDC analysts will try to find out the  bomb signature of the explosives based on reconstruction of forensic evidence by the Crime Laboratory and other security forces that responded to the incident.

“Any specific bomb signature that will be determined from the technical analysis will be compared with known bomb signatures from previous incidents that are stored in the PBDC database to possibly identify the person or group to whom the bomb signature can be associated with,” he said earlier.

The twin blasts in Jolo left at least 15 people dead, including a police commando and soldiers, and more than 70 injured.

Police and military claimed that the suspects were allegedly women suicide bombers.

PNP will conduct DNA tests on the samples from the crime scene to determine the identity and nationality of the suspects. Ella Dionisio/DMS