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By James Konstantin Galvez, Reporter
An Australian antiterrorism specialist on
Thursday urged the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Ayala Land
Inc. to disclose their separate—and conflicting—reports on the
Glorietta 2 explosion.
Dr. Kit Collier, who’s with the Research
School of Pacific and Asian Studies of the Australian National
University, said the authorities have a lot of explaining to do to
avoid public perception that there might be a cover-up of the blast
on October 19 that killed 11 people and wounded 112 others.
He added Ayala Land, which owns the Glorietta
malls, should publicly present its findings.
Collier stressed that presenting both reports
will enable independent forensic and counterterrorism specialists to
scrutinize what evidence they have to support their conclusions.
“What’s alarming in this case is that more
people believe that this is a terrorist attack,” he added. “This
is so because those reports, in its fullest forms, have not been
made available yet so experts in this case can independently look at
it.”
In a forum conducted by the Foreign
Correspondents Association of the Philippines, Collier said he
doubts the police’s final report, which was released on January
10.
“What I’m calling attention to is the
pattern of politically motivated cover-ups by the government,”
Collier said.
“It’s unconvincing in the way it is
presented,” he added. “I’m not saying that the PNP is
fundamentally wrong, it’s just that they they’re not making
their case in an effective way. If it is a methane blast as they
claim it is, and then there is a very heavy burden of proof on the
authorities’ part.”
Collier pointed that police’s inconsistency in
announcing its initial findings to the media made people think that
the government is covering up a terrorist attack.
In the first days of the post-blast
investigations, police officials publicly declared that the
explosion could have been caused by a bomb, supported by later
reports saying there were traces of chemicals to support that story.
That was later retracted.
There were also speculations that the explosion
was cause by a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and the police finally
settled on the industrial accident theory, saying it was due to a
buildup of methane in the mall’s basement.
Collier also cited the police’s presentation
of photographs of two blast victims, one hit by a bomb and the other
one by a gas explosion. He said that the pictures alone can’t tell
what type of blast took place at Glorietta.
Collier said his recent talks with media were
intended to provoke more discussion on the issue, especially since
the public has no access both the investigation reports.
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