MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Sunday evening said a clearance is needed before they release the artist sketches of the persons of interest on the Davao City night market blast as it might endanger ongoing operations.
“As of the moment, I have to get clearance from my commander, the commander of the special Investigation Task Group Night Market for the clearance to release the artist sketch because we are conducting police operations not only in investigation phase. We also have operations from the intelligence phase also on the intelligence teams so we might just jeopardize the operations as of the moment so I’d rather not release the sketch yet,” Davao City police director Senior Superintendent Michael John Dubria said in a televised press briefing.
Dubria tagged the night market bombing as an act of terrorism, but clarified that he could not label it yet as “an act coming from a terrorist group.” He said it was an act of terrorism because it caused serious damage and loss of lives but maybe it was perpetrated by an isolated group.
“I cannot label it an act coming from a terrorist group. Maybe this was perpetrated by an isolated group or having grudges…’Di pa natin masasabi as of this moment so we are pursuing that information and we will develop some leads to that,” the police said.
Dubria said the intelligence unit of Davao (Region 11) is trying its best to determine the group behind the blast and checking the groups near the region. He added that the persons of interest might be the real suspect or persons that can lead to the real suspects.
Dubria said that among the suspects are drug syndicates and lawless armed groups. He, however, said there is an existing ceasefire between the government and the Communist Party of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
“We have threats from the drug groups,of course, those affected by our illegal drug operations,…Nandun naman itong mga threats natin na ito. Hopefully, everybody in their group respects the ceasefire,” Dubria said.
On Saturday, PNP Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa said witnesses pointed to three persons who could have left or blown off an improvised explosive device. Dubria confirmed it saying one man who went to a massage parlor might have placed the bag, while two other females were just seen tagging along behind him.
READ: PNP eyes 3 suspects in Davao blast
Dubria, however, said there could be more suspects. He said they retrieved eight footage from CCTV cameras and there are eight witnesses backing their probe, which are also being reviewed.
“We don’t impose [a] deadline on [the] investigation,” Dubria said.
