Muslims fear crackdown as cops review bomb theory

Muslims fear a crackdown in their communities following reports that police are reviewing the presence of RDX, a component of the C-4 explosive, and zeroing in on the terrorist angle in the explosion at Glorietta 2 shopping mall in Makati last Oct. 19, a former commissioner on human rights said yesterday.

Lawyer Nasser Marohomsalic asked the Philippine National Police (PNP) to consider other angles rather than focus on the usual suspects – the Abu Sayyaf or the separatist rebels as behind the attack.

“C-4 explosives are not in the arsenal of the Muslim rebels or even the Abu Sayyaf. If the police pursue the angle then they must exhaust their intelligence network to determine who are really the culprits in the attack,” he said.

Marohomsalic told The STAR the PNP is set to release its final report on the Glorietta 2 explosion that killed and wounded several people.

During the initial search of the blast site, investigators found traces of RDX, which was the basis for the initial findings that the explosion was a terrorist attack.

However, in the following weeks the PNP released findings that said the explosion was an accident.

The PNP’s report was based on the findings of an inter-agency body which conducted joint investigation on the Glorietta blast.

However, the report was disputed by experts hired by Ayala Land Inc., including experts who claimed that gas explosions cannot cause massive structural damage to a building.

Sewer engineers and other experts also ruled out that sump pit or pozo negro could have been the cause of explosion, as claimed by other experts.

The PNP was supposed to release its final report early this month but postponed it to next month to consolidate the report.

Marohomsalic has earlier questioned the delay in the results of the Glorietta investigation, when all the evidence are lying under the debris of the shopping mall, while the bombing of the House of Representatives was solved after three days.

“If the reports that the PNP is going back to its original theory which is terrorist attack is true then the first target would be the Muslims,” Marohomsalic said.