Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 10) — The Metro Manila police are pursuing a woman said to be behind the delivery of the explosive used in the Quiapo blast on Saturday.
“It seems that she’s a female and it was handed in the vicinity of SM Manila,” National Capital Region Police Office Chief Oscar Albayalde told The Source on Wednesday. “Hopefully the address that she gave is true, so that’s what we’re pursuing now — and the name, of course.”
“All we have now is the CCTV footage, who handed the package to the Grab driver and we couldn’t probably recognize the face. It’s because it’s covered by [a] hijab,” he added.
Police earlier said they have the name and mobile phone number of at least one suspect. Manila Police Director PCSupt. Joel Coronel told CNN Philippines they were looking at four persons of interest.
Related: Four persons-of-interest in Quiapo blasts
The Manila district was rocked by twin blasts Saturday evening. The first, which went off just before 6:00 p.m., killed two people — including the GrabExpress partner tasked with delivering the package that contained the explosive.
There were no casualties in the second blast, which exploded past 8:00 p.m.
Related: Grab PH confirms Quiapo blast victim was a ‘GrabExpress’ partner
Investigation revealed the package was addressed to Bureau of Internal Revenue official Atty. Nasser Abinal, who is also an imam in the Quiapo Muslim community.
“We have the testimonial evidence where we could rely on the testimonies of the witnesses and the physical evidence that we gathered and of course from the statement of the supposed victim,” Albayalde said.
He added Abinal was stumped as to who could be behind the explosions, although he received death threats.
Albayalde reiterated there’s not enough evidence to conclude the explosions were terrorist acts, saying “we really do not know if the ones taking the responsibility are ISIS.”
Related: PNP, AFP adamant – no terror connection in May 6 blasts
He added the motivation leans “more on the personal matters” and may have to do with Abinal being an imam.
“Probably the bomb was really not meant to assassinate him,” Albayalde said, saying the explosion took place on a weekend. “If it was meant to assassinate him, then they should have waited for him to be at the office, where they could have delivered it during weekdays, when he was really there.”
Albayalde also disclosed that the second explosive, which was planted across the street from Abinal’s office, went undetected by K-9 units because remnants of the first explosion were still in the air.
“It’s because the area, the crime scene was already so contaminated. The explosion, [the dogs] could already smell the explosives there,” he explained.
“The package was actually placed on top of the roof — hindi maabot ng K-9 yun [The K-9 could not reach it],” he added.
Albayalde said the public could help by giving the police information.
“We rely so much on human intelligence, we have no technical capability. I must admit that,” he said. “Because we are tactical units, so we rely so much on our informants.”
The police have also caught one suspect from another explosion in Quiapo last April 28. They are still pursuing four other persons of interest involved in the blast.
