Despite the terror sowed on the populace following the aftermath of a blast in a shopping mall in the center of the country’s chief financial district, experts are now ready to close the book on the investigates of the explosion that killed 11 people and injured more than a hundred. The official findings released by the Philippine National Police – the blast was caused by a gas leak from the basement section of the Glorietta 2 blast site, not a terrorist”improvised explosive device” (IED).
At the official press conference at Camp Crame, presided by the multi-agency task force overseeing the investigation into the blast, Chief Supt. Luizo Ticman reported that the forensic evidence collected from the blast site concludes that “the incident was not a bomb explosion but a gas explosion.”
The multi-agency task force, which includes the Philippine National Police, Philippine Bomb Data Center, Bureau of Fire Protection, Department of Justice, National Bureau of Investigation and the Makati police’s Explosives and Ordnance Division (EOD), spent weeks shifting through the rubble in order to determine the origin of the explosion.
Among the reasons that the task force used to determine its conclusion are the absence of bomb parts in the affected area; the lack of bomb crater and explosives residue in the site; the absence of trace explosive materials on the skin and clothing of the victims.
Other physical blast evidence such structural tearing and blackening, usually caused by explosive blasts, were not found in the area.
Following this announcement, the task force also indicated that it would be ready to submit its final report within two to three weeks and will be prepared to file appropriate charges against those responsible for the blast.
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