This, as Erlinda Langcay, aunt and guardian of one of the suspects, Marvin Geonzon, believes that he is just a fall guy who is suffering from psychosis having undergone drug rehabilitation several times since July 1992.
The other suspects are Rodel Ladrera alias Jamal and Habidulia Sahibul. Probers claim Geonzon uses the alias Abdulmalik bin Hakim.
Police and agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) nabbed them separately a day or two after the blast: Geonzon at his house in Barangay Tetuan, Ladrera at the public market and Sahibul at his residence in the coastal village of Caragasan.
Probers have tagged Geonzon as a biochemist. Bomb components and an electronic gadget used to detonate bombs were seized from him.
Chief Inspector Jose Bayani Gucela, city police chief, said they are still hunting the suspects’ cohorts.
Langcay said Geonzon could not be a biochemist, saying he merely finished Grade 3. "He is not a normal person. He is suffering from psychosis for being a drug dependent," she said.
She, however, admitted that Geonzon enrolled in an electronic course in a technical school here during his teenage days to keep himself away from drug abuse.
Langcay said her nephew has had the illusion of creating bombs, tinkering with the circuits of unserviceable radios and television sets.
She said he copied the names of members of Osama bin Laden’s international terrorist network, the al-Qaeda, from a magazine and even bought a poster of bin Laden.
"He is trying to make his peers believe that he is a Muslim convert. But it does not mean he is a bomber," she said.
Langcay alleged that NBI agents tortured her nephew into confessing to the crime and implicating Ladrera.
Lawyer Arturo Nunag, NBI deputy director, however, denied Langcay’s allegations, saying they have substantial evidence against Geonzon.