The chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) expressed support for the recommendation of Army chief Lt. General Cirilito Sobejana to place the province of Sulu under martial law following the twin blasts in Jolo where at least 15 people were killed on Monday

"This will allow the military and police more operational flexibility to carry out law enforcement operations against domestic threat groups in the area,” Police General Archie Francisco Gamboa said Wednesday.

The explosion in Barangay Walled City also resulted in the death of one Special Action Force (SAF) member and several soldiers.

In a TV interview, Police Brig. General Bernard Banac, PNP spokesperson, said implementing martial law in Sulu could help enhance the implementation of the Anti-Terror Law.

“We think that imposing limited martial law in Sulu province would in fact enhance the implementation of the Anti-Terror law, although we are still awaiting for the IRR to be released by the Anti-Terrorism Council… But in the absence of IRR yan, we think imposing martial law would help a lot in maintaining peace and order in the area and respond to the threats of terrorism,” Banac said.

Banac said the arrest of Abu Sayyaf leader Anduljihad "Idang" Susukan in Davao City gives them concern that terrorist groups will retaliate against government forces.

“That prompted us to raise our alert level so that would be avail to prevent and if case that happens, they can response immediately and effectively to terrorism but unfortunately these twin bombings took place,” he said.

More than 70 law enforcers and civilians were injured in the incident.

Gamboa also mobilized the Philippine Bomb Data Center (PBDC) and the PNP crime laboratory for technical support to the ongoing investigation.

He said PBDC analysts will seek to determine the bomb signature of the explosives based on reconstruction of forensic evidence gathered by the crime laboratory and other security forces that responded to the incident.

“Any specific bomb signature that will be determined from the technical analysis will be compared with known bomb signatures from previous incidents that are stored in the PBDC database to possibly identify the person or group to whom the bomb signature can be associated with,” Gamboa said. Ella Dionisio/DMS