Jolo blast killed only 2, not 6, say police

MANILA, Philippines — Only two people were killed in Tuesday’s bombing near a church in Jolo, not six as earlier reported, a Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesman in the south said Wednesday. Superintendent Jose Bayani Gucela, public information of the PNP Directorate for Integrated Police Operations in Western Mindanao, said in a phone interview that 17 other people were injured in the blast that was caused by an improvised explosive device (IED). The bombing happened at 7:55 a.m. Tuesday in Poblacion village in front of the Go Teck Leng Hardware on Sanchez Street in downtown Jolo, just across a Catholic church. Gucela said Tuesday’s figures were based on preliminary reports of the police in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). It turned out that some of the victims who were reported dead by responding policemen have survived after getting treatment in hospital. Although the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) claimed as early as Tuesday afternoon that only two people were killed, the PNP report on the Jolo blast was the basis of most news reports. Gucela said some of the injured victims were reported to be in critical condition but his office has yet to get an update on Wednesday. Three hours after the explosion in Jolo, another IED went off in Iligan City in northern Mindanao, wounding five civilians and two soldiers, police said. The blasts were the latest in a fresh wave of bombings in the volatile southern Philippines. On Sunday morning, an improvised explosive device (IED) planted at a lechon (roasted pig) house in front of the Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral in Cotabato City went off, killing five people and injuring 29 others. The night before, another blast caused by a 60-millimeter mortar explosive in Barangay Buayan in Datu Piang town in Maguindanao province injured three people. Military officials, however, expressed doubts whether the incidents were related. - GMANews.TV