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By Anthony Vargas, Reporter
AMID allegations by Magdaló
rebel-turned-senator Antonio Trillanes 4th that Malacañang is
resurrecting its Oplan Greenbase that saw bombings in different
parts of the country to create a panic situation and justify a state
of national emergency, police forensics experts expressed belief
that “military” type of explosives were used in the deadly
explosions at the high-end Glorietta mall in Makati City Friday
afternoon.
President Gloria Arroyo has already described
the said incident at the Glorietta Mall in which nine people were
killed, scores injured, and one missing as an act of
“terrorism”.
A police post investigation report said that two
explosions occurred inside the mall, causing heavy damage to it. One
explosion occurred at the mall’s atrium at the ground, and the
other one at the delivery dock of the mall.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) chief,
Director General Avelino Razon Jr., said based on initial findings,
traces of highly explosive materials were found at the blast site.
The explosion left an eight meter-wide
(26 foot) crater on the ground floor and blew a hole through the
roof on the second floor.
“Chemical analysts have identified the
chemical RDX as present in the blast site,” Razon said in a press
briefing in Camp Crame.
Said the PNP chief, RDX is the main base
component of powerful explosives such as C4 and TNT, used by
terrorists in past bombing attacks.
PNP Crime Lab Director, Chief Supt. Arturo
Cacdac Jr., said initial post-blast investigation had revealed
traces of high-explosives materials from the blast sites.
“RDX was possibly used. But, we are still
conducting confirmatory test on this one,” Cacdac said in the same
press conferences.
RDX is commercially available. It is a major
component of C4, a type of explosive material which only the
military establishment uses, but can be bought at the black market.
Supt. Albert Ignatius Ferro, chief of the PNP
Bomb Data Center, said that they could not yet immediately ascertain
any particular group responsible for the bombing.
“We could presume those are military ordnance
components, based on 2006 and 2005 data,” Ferro said in the same
press conference.
The police report on the bombing was delivered
at a top-level security meeting between the president and her
security advisers at police headquarters in Manila.
Mrs. Arroyo immediately ordered the country’s
police chief General Avelino Razon to check its source and pinpoint
the culprits.
“Is that already definitive. . .or is there
going to be another more detailed finding of what kind of explosive
was used?,” she said during the briefing. “We need regular
information bulletins on the status of the investigation.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Antonio Trillanes 4th
released a statement expressing belief that the Glorietta 2 mall
blast is “the handiwork of Malacañang Palace, particularly
National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales and AFP Chief of Staff
Hermogenes Esperon.”
“It very looks like a repeat of Oplan
Greenbase, perpetrated by the administration in 2003 in Mindanao,
where a series of bombings rocked the island, killing innocent
people and destroying property,” explained Trillanes.
The bombings remain unexplained to this day, but
Trillanes insisted that “this blast is most likely another tactic
of the administration to divert public attention away from the
controversies hounding GMA [Arroyo].”
“Like Oplan Greenbase, this blast is a pretext
for assorted measures GMA may again concoct, like exercise of
emergency powers, possibly even martial law, to justify repressive
actions against the people to clamp down on peaceful protests and
subdue the rising public clamor for her to resign,” Trillanes
opined.
He added that “Malacañang has no compunction
in doing this kind of dastardly act. Aside from the Mindanao
bombings, this administration is also believed to be responsible for
the extra-judicial killings. They have done it before. They will do
it again, if not stopped from their tracks. They will do everything
just to ensure that GMA stays in power.”
However, Trillanesís allegations were countered
by Razon and Military chief, General Hermogenes Esperon Jr., who
instead, hinted of possible involvement of Trillanesís Magdalo
group who staged a short-lived mutiny on July 27, 2003.
“They have used C4 [before] and there are
still some C4 that are still being accounted,” Esperon said in the
same press briefing.
Security officials expect to narrow down the
personalities behind or involved in the mall blast in the coming
days.
Razon said the government was putting up a
P2-million ($45,454) reward for any information leading to arrests.
No group has claimed responsibility for the
blast, which came weeks after military intelligence foiled an
alleged plot by al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants to bomb
the southern port city of Zamboanga.
National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales
said authorities were also looking at the Abu Sayyaf as possible
suspects, noting that the group may have carried it out as part of
their campaign to attract funding from international terrorist
groups.
The 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front
(MILF) said Saturday it is “prepared to gather intelligence for
the Philippine authorities if asked to do so,” spokesman Eid
Kabalu told AFP.
“We would like to help out if asked. This
could help the military at least eliminate some groups from their
list of suspects,” he said, adding that the offer was being made
as a “sincere gesture” that could also help revive stalled peace
talks.
Reports said officials from the US Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are now helping Philippine police in
the probe.
Throughout the night, bomb experts sifted
through blast debris trying to find clues as to what sort of bomb
was used.
The mall remained sealed Saturday, with a cordon
of policemen guarding its perimeter.
Razon said the bomb was apparently left at a
delivery bay near a popular Chinese restaurant at the mall shortly
after lunch.
He said investigators were also reviewing closed
circuit television cameras and interviewing survivors and witnesses.
Security in all malls, bus and train stations,
as well as sea and airports have been intensified, Razon said, with
elite police commandos patrolling streets.
The posh city of Makati, where Glorietta Mall is
located, has weathered a bombing incident on Valentine’s Day
in February 2005. Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants were blamed for
the bombing of a bus near the mall that killed four people.
Militants also firebombed a ferry in
Manila Bay the previous year, killing more than 100 people in the
country’s worst terrorist attack.
--With AFP report
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