Police have raided a hotel in Zamboanga City which was allegedly used as the hideout of those who planned Thursday's bombing of the local airport that left two people dead and at least 24 injured.

Director-General Jesus Verzosa, Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief, said his men swooped down on the Imperial Hotel on Saturday, following a confirmed report that one of its units was used as the meeting place during the planning stages of the bombing.

No one was arrested and no significant pieces of evidence were seized but Verzosa said they have already identified five persons involved in the attack at the Zamboanga International Airport.

Still, Verzosa id not make it clear whether or not Tumagen “Cocoy” Tulawie is among them, although he was earlier tagged as one of the suspects.

“His name surfaced because he was among those charged in the first attack on (Sulu) Governor (Abdusakur) Tan last year. I did not tag him as the mastermind, he is just one of the personalities subject of the follow-up because of his involvement in the first assassination attempt on the governor,” said Verzosa in a phone interview.

Earlier, Verzosa said the Zamboanga City airport blast is more of a politically-motivated act rather than terrorism, citing both the result of the initial and investigation and the development of the probe as the basis.

He said that Tan, who had just arrived then from Manila, was the most likely target.

The progress report on the case also revealed that Reynaldo Apilado might have been duped by his cohorts since he did not know that he would also get killed in the assassination attempt on Tan.

Apilado, whose body was mangled as a result of the powerful blast, was the one carrying the bag, and Verzosa said that it appeared that he did not know that the backpack he was carrying was rigged by improvised explosive device.

The instruction that was apparently given to him was to roam around the premises of the airport and get as closer possible to Tan who was then at then walking at the arrival area.

Tan was slightly injured in the attack, only hit by what appeared to be a bone and flesh of Apilado that splattered during the blast. Tan was almost one meter away from Apilado then but the fact that the bag was placed at the back of Apilado apparently saved him.

“It was not a case of suicide bombing because there were no actuations on the part of Apilado showing that he was determined to kill and get killed,” said Verzosa, citing a review of the CCTV (closed-circuit television) installed at the airport.

“It appears that he did not know that there was a bomb in his back, we believe that it was just passed on to him before the explosion,” said Verzosa.

But the PNP Chief was quick to clarify that Apilado was no innocent man, stressing that he had participated in the planning stage at the Imperial Hotel where his cohorts stayed and repeatedly met.
“He was a member of the group, in fact, he also stayed in the (Imperial) hotel,” said Verzosa.

Verzosa said the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) is now aggressively conducting follow-up operations to arrest all those responsible in the attack.