One of the two Bondi Beach shooters visited a Davao City gun store during their month-long stay in the Philippines, police said on Saturday as they attempted to retrace the pair’s movements.

Sajid Akram, 50, was shot dead by Australian police, while his son Naveed, 24, survived his wounds and has been charged with 59 offenses, including 15 counts of murder.

An Australian counter-terrorism team is investigating whether the two met with Islamist extremists during their nearly month-long stay in Davao City before the mass shooting that killed 15 people in Sydney on 14 December.

The staff of Davao City’s GV Hotel said the two men had remained holed up in their small room for most of their 28-day stay in November, leaving only briefly each morning.

“We are in the process of investigating the movements of these two suspects while they were in the Philippines,” Police Brig. Gen. Leon Victor Rosete, Region Office-11 director, told the London news outfit, The Guardian.

Probe centers on Davao hotel

The pair’s movements outside the GV hotel are the focus of the investigation.

Rosete said police were also looking into the mobile numbers they used during their stay, and the pair’s contacts.

“We are determining their activities, their support networks; we are investigating and gathering intelligence information,” Rosete said.

“The father had shown an interest in firearms; he went into a firearms shop,” Rosete said, adding that the store was located in the city.

Rosete said there was CCTV footage of the two on a “jog walk” lasting about an hour in the vicinity of the hotel. Rosete said this appeared to be a “physical conditioning” exercise.

“We are patching together all the information. We are connecting the dots,” Rosete said.

National Security Adviser Eduardo Año said the government will “ensure there is no stone left unturned.”

“We want to help the Australian government and at the same ensure that any possible terrorist threat to our country is eliminated,” he added.

The Akrams initially booked a seven-night stay online but requested extensions upon arrival and continued to extend their stay until checking out on 28 November, according to a hotel staffer. 

The two arrived carrying one big piece of luggage and a backpack.

One line of investigation is why the pair repeatedly extended their stay and whether they were waiting for someone or something to arrive.

“They might have been waiting for someone who never came but I don’t want to speculate,” a security official leading the investigation said.

“There are lots of speculations but we have to be evidence-based,” Año said.

“One thing is sure — they just stayed in Davao for the duration of their visit. Likewise, they did not visit any firing range in Davao,” he added.

Malicious terror hotspot tag 

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had criticized reports that he said misleadingly portrayed the Philippines “as a training hotspot for terrorism.”

“For years, we have acted decisively to dismantle terrorist networks, to secure communities, and to sustain our hard-earned peace,” he said in a speech celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Armed Forces of the Philippines on Friday.

“To dismiss these gains with unfounded speculation is not acceptable,” he said.

The military has said that Mindanao’s remaining jihadists now number little more than 50, from a high of 1,257 in 2016.