DAVAO CITY – Mayor Rodrigo Duterte ordered a stricter security search in all vehicles entering the city after the latest bomb explosion in the city on Wednesday.
In a Philippine Information Agency dispatch, Duterte said “there is a clear and present danger with the occurrence of the latest blast.”
“I have to protect the community, so I must order the search of everybody,” he said.
The local police here is looking at the motive of extortion and personal grudge as possible angles on the bombing of a passenger van which injured the van conductor.
Police said the van driver and owner has reported of previous extortion from a local group in Pikit, North Cotabato where the van took off 5:00 am Wednesday.
Duterte said one angle being pursued in the investigation is the strict campaign of the city against illegal van terminals while the other is the Moro insurgency, with the arrest of one Abdul Manap Mentang, allegedly a top leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front who was implicated in the Valentine’s Day bombing at the gate of the Davao Overland Transport Terminal in 2005.
He said the fingerprints of Mentang and the one arrested earlier and was linked to the Valentine’s Day bombing must be compared to know the distinction.
Duterte said the two suspects look different based on the photos given to him on the person earlier arrested and the one recently arrested in Pigkawayan, North Cotabato.
Duterte said he doubts the involvement of the second Mentang who was arrested recently.
“Let me first find out the truth because it is not good to put anybody to prison for something he has not done,” he said.
Duterte said the latest arrested suspect must be released if he is not the real perpetrator.
He also urged the Moro Islamic Liberation Front or anyone responsible for the van blast to stop it.
Duterte also vowed to run after colorum vehicles. (davaotoday.com)
