PNP eyes person, vehicle of interest on Gov Oaminal attack

OROQUIETA CITY, Misamis Occidental —Misamis Occidental Police Provincial Office (MOPPO) Provincial Director PCol. Dwight Monato said that they already have persons and vehicles of interest relating on bombing incident that transpired last October 15.

“So far, the case is ongoing. We are in the process of investigating the case and we have persons of interest and vehicles of interest. This has been alarming to all police stations and all the PNP units province-wide,’’ he said.

Director Monato reported the current update of the investigation, and crime scene map at 11:10pm, some distance away from Aya Hotel where the governor came from. Aya Hotel is located near the Clarin Business Center.

In his report, he showed pictures of the actual blast site, positions of the convoy and location of the improvised explosive device (IED). He also explained that of the four vehicles, only the first two vehicles incurred the impact of the blast and the third vehicle was where the governor was on board.

Fortunately, it only got a small damage on the hood. 14 people were on board and nobody got hurt.

Monato confirmed the blast was made by an IED or homemade bomb and the result of the terminal analysis made by the Forensic Unit that the explosive used was Ammonium Nitrate which is usually used in mining. It is commercially available and the motive that was seen was a combination of political and personal.

"Based on our EUD experts the content of the explosive is about 2 kilos, and shrapnel is about 1/1 inch diameter so this is a distracted component, and considered high explosives," he mentioned.

They were done with taking the statements of the persons who were in the convoy including the governor, in the hopes of painting the actual picture of the incident. They also made a backtrack on the CCTV footage obtained near or the neighboring areas of the blast site.

They also identified some possible locations of the trigger man because the IED was confirmed to be triggered by a cell phone so they needed to call first that would trigger the blast.

The PNP beefed up the security of the governor, and they have talked with the security officers if they can provide additional police forces to the residents and other areas of engagement.

They created tracker teams to continuously track down the suspects based on their identities and descriptions of the vehicles used by the suspects that were seen in the vicinity of the blast site.

They also intensified police operations by checkpoints, Oplan Bakal and Sita, and border control so that they could intercept the perpetrators behind the bombing incidents. (SMRN/PGMO)