Before noon yesterday, the town center of Jolo, Sulu was rocked by a blast that claimed the lives of many civilians and military personnel. Then at around 1:06 PM, a second blast occurred just 100 meters away from the site of the first explosion.
Senator Richard “Dick” Gordon, the principal author of the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act (dubbed Doble Plaka Law by the motorcycle community) said in a recent social media post that it was a motorcycle rigged with an improvised explosive device (IED).
Photos of the blast site have circulated on social media, with one showing a burnt Suzuki Raider R150, suspected of being the cause of the explosion, postulated as possibly used by terrorists. However, some have pointed out that a motorcycle rigged with IEDs would not survive such an explosion.
That theory is now being debunked by the brother of the motorcycle owner.
In a social media post above, Mammar Jammar, has appealed to the public not to jump to conclusions. He says that his brother – the owner of the Raider – was just at the wrong place at the wrong time when the blasts happened.
“Wag naman kayo manghusga Agad. Hindi porket nasunog ang motor ng kapatid ko siya na ang naglagay ng bomba, kabago2x lng yan nabili ang motor na iyan 85k din lagyan ng kapatid ng bomba Guy'z isipin ninyo mahirap din kami hindi kayang gawain ng kapatid ko. (Don’t be too quick to judge. Just because my brother’s bike burned from the blast, it doesn’t mean he’s the perpetrator. He just bought that bike for PhP85,000 and it would be absurd if he would only use it as a bomb. Think about it, we’re also poor and my brother would never do such a thing.)” said Jammar.
Jammar also added that the only reason why his brother was at the Jolo town center at the time was to accompany their cousin to the local repair shop that specializes in laptops.
“Biktama lang ang kapatid ko maawa naman kayo at saka kung sa motor nalagay ang bomba wala kang makikita na kahit anong katawan ng motor..diba kitang kita ninyo naman nakatayo pa ang motor..please wag naman kayo manghusga. (My brother was also a victim, please spare us. And if the bomb was indeed placed in his motorcycle, there shouldn’t be any pieces of it left. As you can see, the bike is still standing. Please, do not judge us.)”
The Joint Task Force of Sulu said that, based on CCTV footage, the first blast was triggered by a suicide bomber that detonated an explosion near the parked motorcycle.
