By Ronron
October 24, 2007
The Philippine National Police (PNP) is standing by its theory that the more likely cause of the incident last Friday at the Glorietta 2 mall in Makati City that killed 11 people and hurt over a hundred others was gas explosion and not bombing.
Director Geary Barias, head of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) and spokesman of the team investigating the incident, issued the statement hours after the Ayala Land, Inc. refuted on Wednesday the initial findings of the police, saying the basement of Glorietta 2 was in order prior to the blast.
“My point is what are the indicators,” Barias said, referring to their findings that there was septic tank at the basement of Glorietta 2 where a diesel tank is also located.
Barias had earlier said that the methane gas from the waste at the septic tank and the diesel fumes could have mixed up and then ignited by something, causing the explosion last Friday afternoon. The physical appearance of the basement led investigators to believe that it was the seat of the explosion.
On Tuesday, Barias announced that they have already downgraded the bombing theory because of the absence of bomb components and crater at the blast site. But this does not mean that it is already completely being ruled out.
According to Barias, their investigation revealed that sometime during the second quarter of this year, fire protection pumps and pipes at the basement underwent rehabilitation.
And then, a week before the incident, there was a breaker that tripped, causing flooding at the basement.
Finally, on the day before the blast, some works were done at the basement, particularly, the bringing in of a portable submersible pump that was used as temporary replacement of one of the sewer pumps.
Barias revealed that when investigators went to the basement after the incident, it was filled knee-deep with human waste.
This accumulation of waste, he said, is likely source of methane gas that sought to find an escape route because of the enclosed area or insufficient ventilation.
“We are looking at the portable pump, or the bulb, or the circuit breaker that could have caused the spark, leading to the explosion… That’s what we are trying to determine now, as to what caused the spark,” he said.
Barias said that while Ayala Land, Inc. executives maintain that there was nothing out of ordinary at the basement at the time of the explosion, they failed to categorically state that “there are ongoing repairs in that facility because it was not working normally.”
Asked if the explanation given by the Ayala Land executives can be considered as tantamount already to admission of having responsibility over the basement, Barias said: “I would not like to comment because we are not yet at that stage on (the) liabilities… I’m not also a lawyer yet, so I cannot comment on that yet.”
Barias said they will now recall the personnel they have interviewed regarding the repair at the basement to ascertain who commissioned them.
“Those being contracted to work there are from the outside. We need to investigate again these people to know who hired them,” he said.
Meanwhile, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. on Wednesday hit Senator Antonio Trillanes IV for “mixing speculation with politics” over the incident even as the “investigation is not yet over.”
Told that the police findings’ apparently cleared him of the allegation hurled against him and National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales by Trillanes as being responsible for the blast, Esperon just said: “It is always alarming if there would be terrorist bombing in Metro Manila. But responding to that…, I would say it was too speculative, mixing speculation with politics anytime that the investigation is not yet over.”
He maintained that he could not be capable of staging a bombing incident as “we are supposed to be protecting the people.”
The military chief threw back the allegation instead to Trillanes, citing the Oakwood incident in July 2003 when the Magdalo Group, of which the Senator is a key leader, brought in C4 explosives.
“If indeed we were the ones who conducted the bombings, my question would be, who were the people in fact who planted bombs in that area in 2003? We have not done that. Some people have done it,” Esperon said, referring to the Magdalo soldiers.
Esperon urged the public to “wait for the investigation to wrap up,” “respect the expertise of the investigators,” and avoid speculating so the truth will come out.
“This is a very trying time. Accusations have been hurled all over but I must say that it is always best that you wait for some results before you speak out and accuse people. Let us bear in mind that the Armed Forces of the Philippines is here to protect the people and we intend to do our job,” he said.
According to Barias, they are just awaiting the completion of the analysis of the experts on the pieces of evidence recovered from the blast site before they can close the investigation and come up with a conclusion.
He said if he had his way, he wanted it done before this coming Friday, but he is skeptical about this, considering the difficulty in putting the report into writing.
“Our time frame is as soon as possible,” Barias said./DMS
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment