Suicide bombers escaped after cops killed soldiers in Jolo -Army

Two female suicide bombers whom the Philippine Army has been hunting down have escaped possible capture due to the killing of soldiers by police in Jolo, Sulu, Army chief Lieutenant General Gilbert Gapay said Thursday.

According to Jun Veneracion’s report on “24 Oras,” the two women were allegedly married to the men who figured in suicide bombing attacks in Indanan last year.

“These are the suspected bombers. So nando’n na, they’re about to capture them, ‘yung bahay na lang pini-pinpoint, and we lost the opportunity,” Gapay said.

“Imagine, these two could make two more Jolo Cathedral bombings ha. ‘Yun ang potential nila,” he added.

CCTV footage showed that several soldiers arrived at the scene of the incident shortly after soldiers were shot dead on Monday.

The Army said no policemen were present when soldiers arrived on the scene.

The soldiers caught on the CCTV video are part of the “takedown team” hunting down the suspected terrorists.

Gapay said he wanted to find the portion of the CCTV footage which captured the killing of his men.

“I ordered to further look into that video and I also ordered to look for that portion. I am looking for the 2:30 to 2:47 because that portion, that segment will show the actual shooting. Nawawala ‘yun,” Gapay said.

He slammed as “malicious” a netizen who uploaded on the internet a portion of the said footage showing the brother of one of the slain soldiers attending to the corpse of his kin at the crime scene.

“Bakit ito lang ang pinalabas? So we find that malicious. Whoever uploaded that, we find it malicious,” Gapay said.

The Army commanding general earlier said the killing of the four soldiers was a case of murder and not a misencounter as initially described by the Philippine National Police. -Julia Mari Ornedo/NB, GMA News