Barias appeals for patience to families of Glorietta 2 blast victims

By Ronron
October 31, 2007

A day before Filipinos start paying tribute to their dead loved ones, the Philippine National Police (PNP) could only hope to assuage the grief of families of the Glorietta 2 blast victims by assuring them of a thorough investigation, and at the same time appeal for their patience.

In a news conference Wednesday morning at Camp Crame, Quezon City, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Geary Barias, spokesman of the Glorietta 2 blast investigation task force, said the PNP is one with the victims’ families in the search for justice on the incident.

“We are one with you in your search for justice. Very soon, we will end the investigation and hopefully, justice will be served,” Barias said, addressing the families of the victims.

The blast that happened last October 19 resulted in the death of 11 people and the wounding of a little over 100. Initial findings of investigators show that the incident was a gas explosion and not bombing.

On Wednesday, Barias could not say when the investigation will finally wrap up, saying that investigators are still determining the source of ignition that blew off the mixture of methane gas and diesel fumes at the basement of Glorietta 2.

“To the victims of the incident, let’s just be a little patient with the result because we are conducting a very thorough investigation. If this will not be thorough, then we may be filing a useless case later on,” Barias said.

“It’s very important to complete the story because in the court of law, your story should be complete… As much as possible, we have to convince the judge later that this is what happened. We cannot just talk about possibilities. You must have evidence to prove those possibilities,” he added.

Barias reiterated his earlier pronouncements that filing of criminal and civil charges is a logical consequence to the incident because of the casualties.

But when asked yesterday who will be charged, he only said: “I will not jump into the conclusion that it is indeed the Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI) that has responsibility. It is the job of our lawyers later on to interpret the contract as to who really has responsibility over this incident.”

According to him, ALI owned up the property but it claimed leasing it to Makati Supermarket in 1992.

“Three days ago, we are looking for the engineer of Makati Supermarket because Ayala said, Makati Supermarket has control over that space. And they gave us also a copy of the contract between Makati Supermarket and them,” Barias said.

Barias said that to “complete the story,” they have to find out if any of the following was the source of the spark that ignited the blast – the submersible pump for the sewage system, the circuit breaker, the light switch, or the light bulb itself.

The pump, he said, is expected to be retrieved from the basement yesterday afternoon for chemical analysis. “If they see some burns at the machine itself, maybe, that would give us conclusions that that is where the spark came from.”

Barias said their initial findings are consistent with those of the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Israeli bomb experts that extended technical assistance and made their own investigation too.

During yesterday’s press briefing, Barias showed to reporters from a distance the 13-page report of the AFP that was submitted to PNP chief Gen. Avelino Razon, Jr. by the AFP liason officer, Kurt Plummer, last Tuesday.

The report, dated October 27, stated in its conclusion that “there is no evidence to suggest that the explosion had been caused and/or initiated by an IED or Improvised Explosive Device,” said Barias.

“A fuel-air mixture explosion or that a gas explosion occurred, which originated in the basement,” he went on. Barias withheld the distribution of the AFP report to the media as requested by the AFP.

The Israeli bomb experts also issued the same findings, said Barias.

“These are experts actually hired by one of the companies here and they were just there, they were invited because we are very transparent in our investigation. So they looked at the site for their impression as to what could have caused it,” he said.

“And it was a gas that caused the explosion. That was their only finding,” Barias said.

As to the FBI’s report, Barias said the PNP are still awaiting it.

Barias said the findings of the foreign experts may have reinforced the initial findings of the Multi-Agency Investigating Task Force (MAITF), but it is not yet certain if these will form part in the formal report of the MAITF. He said it will be up to the task force being led by Chief Supt. Luizo Ticman, the chief of the Southern Police District./DMS