Bondi attack suspects' Philippines trip becomes focus of probe

The Bondi Beach shooting suspects' stay at the GV Hotel in Davao, the Philippines, is being probed by Australian authorities.A father and son checked into a low-key budget hotel in Davao, in the southern Philippines, on Nov.

HONG KONG — A father and son checked into a low-key budget hotel in Davao, in the southern Philippines, on Nov. 1, after flying into the country from Australia.

They were holed up there for nearly a month and stayed largely in their room, staff said Thursday, before returning to Sydney where they are accused of killing 15 people at a beachside Hanukkah event in an attack inspired by the Islamic State militant group.

The area the suspects traveled to has been seen as a hot spot for violent extremism — a reputation the Philippine government insists is outdated, while it dismisses the idea that the pair received any training in the Southeast Asian nation for the attack.

But why they went to the Philippines in the month before the massacre, what they did at the hotel and who they may have met with is now the focus of authorities investigating the shooting.

'I was holding her': Parents of child killed in Bondi shooting recount tragedy01:33Holed up in DavaoThe city of Davao, on the southern island of Mindanao, is one of the main entry points to inland areas that have a history of Islamist insurgency, and which analysts say still contain pockets of extremist fighters.