PERPETRATORS OF JOLO BOMBING OUT TO SABOTAGE PEACE PROCESS

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today condemned the bombing of the Sulu Consumers Cooperatives Store in Jolo that killed nine persons, saying it has no other motive except to sabotage the peace process in Mindanao.

The lone senator from Mindanao said the timing of the bombing very unusual as it happened while the Senate is set to take up the budget of the Department of National Defense and Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Saboteurs of peace in Sulu are killing innocent people to promote their own ends. Its very unusual incidence that its budget time and the desire for more appropriations money could be a motive, Pimentel said.

Pimentel urged the Philippine National Police to conduct a thorough investigation into the blast and to identify the group or individuals who carried out the terrorist activity amid skepticism among the Sulu populace over the initial suspicion of the PNP that it was a handiwork of the Abu Sayyaf.