- The Australian team is investigating whether Sajid and Naveed met with extremists in Mindanao.
- Davao hotel staff said the men stayed mostly in their rooms for 28 days.
- CCTV is being reviewed to trace other places they visited or people they met.
MANILA: One of two suspected Bondi Beach shooters visited a gun store during his stay in the Philippines, police said Saturday as they tried to track the couple's movements.
An Australian counterterrorism team is investigating whether Sajid Akram and his son Naveed met with extremists during a nearly month-long visit to the southern island of Mindanao before the mass shooting that killed 15 people in Sydney six days ago.
Staff at GV Hotel Davao City said AFP this week that the two men had remained holed up in their small room for most of their 28-day stay, leaving only briefly each morning.
“What we have seen is one of them visiting a gun store,” Davao regional police spokesperson Catherine Dela Rey said on Saturday, adding later that it was Sajid Akram, 50, who had been seen.
“Our review of security cameras is ongoing, so we can see the other places they visited and people they may have spoken to,” he said.
While little has been made public at this stage of the investigation, National Security Adviser Eduardo Año told reporters on Friday that there was “no way” the men could have left the city for training.
“They would leave and return after two or three hours, the longest time was eight hours, but still… that window of time would not be enough for them to leave Davao,” he said.
Police investigations also revealed that none of the men had visited any of the city's seven shooting ranges, he said.
President Ferdinand Marcos has criticized media reports that he says misleadingly portray the Philippines “as a training point for terrorism.”
“For years, we have acted decisively to dismantle terrorist networks, protect communities and maintain our hard-won peace,” he said in a speech to mark the 90th anniversary of the country's armed forces on Friday.
“Dismissing these achievements with unfounded speculation is not acceptable.”
