President Rodrigo Duterte said would visit victims of the twin blasts that rocked Jolo, Sulu, on Sunday as the military said the mastermind of the bomb attacks was pinned down in the town of Patikul.
On Saturday, members of the 3rd and 5th Scout Ranger Battalion traded fire with Abu Sayyaf gunmen, including the suspected mastermind of the bomb attacks, Mundi Sawadjaan.
Western Mindanao Command chief Maj. Gen. Corleto Vinluan Jr. said two Abu Sayyaf members and one soldier died in the clash, while seven other soldiers from the 5th Scout Ranger Battalion were injured.
“Yes, he's there,” Vinluan said in Filipino. But he could not say if Sawadjaan was wounded in the exchange of fire.
“He's still in Patikul and he can't leave because we have a lot of troops there,” he added.
Vinluan said the hunt for Sawadjaan and his group would be sustained until the alleged Jolo bombing mastermind is captured.
Days after suggesting that it would be prudent to place Sulu under martial law following the deadly twin blasts in Jolo on Aug. 24, Philippine Army commander Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana on Sunday said he is withdrawing his recommendation as there might be better options.
The Army commander earlier said it would be best to place Sulu under martial law so that normalcy would return to the province and control the movement of terrorists behind the attack that killed 15 people and wounded 74 others.
But Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief-of-staff Lt. Gen. Gilbert Gapay said there are other options to contain the terrorists in Sulu.
This, he said, includes using Presidential Proclamation 55 where President Rodrigo R. Duterte placed Mindanao under a state of national emergency due to lawless violence after the bomb attack in Davao City that killed 14 people and wounded over 60 others on Sept. 2, 2016 and the newly-enacted Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.
The Department of Justice, meanwhile, said the Bureau of Immigration is checking the travel history of the two suspected Indonesian terrorists believed to members of the Abu Sayyaf Group and who were allegedly involved in the twin bombings in Jolo, Sulu on Aug. 24.
Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete said that as part of the standard operating procedure of the BI, they would check on the travel records of foreigners to find out the frequency of their travels into the country.
Also on Sunday, an official of the 11th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army denied any lapses in the response to intelligence reports related to the twin explosions in Jolo, Sulu last week.
The spokesman for the 11th Infantry Division’s General Staff for Civil Military Operations spokesman Lt. Col. Ronald Mateo said security in Sulu is actually strict.
“A terrorist is difficult to predict, especially suicide bombers,” Mateo said.
Mateo made the statement when asked about the possible lapses in security considering that authorities already received intelligence reports on the threats in Jolo before the attack.
The bomb attacks on Aug. 24 left 15 people dead and 74 others wounded.
Duterte himself made this announcement of his Jolo visit in a short video call with singer Jimmy Bondoc and writer-director and singer-songwriter Njel de Mesa during the “Singing for the President” virtual concert.
Bondoc, a staunch supporter of the President, is also vice president for corporate social responsibility of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor).
“I’m going to Jolo. I’m going straight to Jolo, there in the blast site. I want to honor the deaths of our soldiers and police,” Duterte said.
Duterte also said he was about to leave for Jolo, Sulu to fulfill his duties as commander-in-chief.