‘Methane, diesel mix could have triggered blast’

Police are verifying information that a deadly mix of methane gas – mostly from human waste – and diesel fumes triggered the blast that killed 11 people and wounded more than a hundred others at Glorietta 2 last Friday.

Investigators said they were pursuing the angle after learning from a building engineer at Glorietta 2 that the mall’s sewerage system was defective at the time of the blast.

A huge diesel tank for the building’s generator was kept at the basement where the sewerage system was also located.

Experts said a chemical reaction from the mixture of methane and diesel fumes could produce RDX, a major component of C-4 explosive commonly used by the military.

“The sewerage system has broken down and the methane gas has built up. Methane gas when combined with diesel could explode,” said Interior Undersecretary for Public Safety Marius Corpus.

Corpus told The STAR of similar incidents in other countries where methane gas accumulation caused explosions, the most disastrous of which was in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1992.

Superintendent Fennimore Jaudian, chief investigator of the multi-agency group investigating the incident, said Glorietta 2 building engineer Marcelo Butanes told them of defective pumps for the sewer system.

“Butanes told us that they replaced the system with portable submersible pumps,” Jaudian said. He theorized that the portable pumps were not enough, hence, the buildup of methane.

Jaudian said the partly-ruptured cover of the diesel tank indicated that the blast came from inside.

Philippine National Police chief Director General Avelino Razon said authorities were “working round the clock and exerting all efforts to get to the bottom of this incident.”

He said he has directed Crime Laboratory director Chief Superintendent Arturo Cacdac to start a thorough analysis on the chemical component of diesel.

“I have directed the Crime Lab to conduct test on diesel to find out if RDX is among its components,” said Razon at a briefing at the PNP headquarters.

Earlier, a police chemist said traces of RDX were found on materials taken from the blast site.

“We are considering all possibilities, we would base our findings on evidence and fact,” Razon said.

“So far we have not found bomb fragments but that is not conclusive that it was not caused by a bomb because we have not gone through the entire rubble and debris,” he added.

He said US experts did not find traces of RDX because they sought samples at areas that were not directly covered by the blast.

“The US tests are negative because when the US experts arrived at the blast site, they swabbed the exterior portions or the portions that were not directly at the center or at the seat, of the explosion. That’s why it tested negative,” Razon said. The military’s public information office chief Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro said they’ve started an inventory of its stock of C-4.

But National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said over dzRH that although there was nothing conclusive yet in the investigation, he is not convinced that the blast was accidental.

He said other commercial buildings in Metro Manila are in worse shape and have more sloppy stowage procedures. He declined to speculate on which group was responsible.

Meanwhile, experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Australia joined other international investigators in establishing the cause of the blast.

National Capital Regional Police Office chief, Chief Superintendent Geary Barias said investigators have “also recruited metallurgical, forensics and petrochemical experts, aside from the FBI and Australian Federal Police...to help evaluate the blast site materials.”

The Makati Business Club earlier called on authorities to allow the FBI to step into the case, citing the slow pace of the ongoing probe.

“If they failed to present concrete findings within five days, there must be something wrong. I think it would greatly help if an International investigating body, such as the FBI, would intervene in the investigation” MBC executive director Alberto Lim told The STAR. “It will not only speed up the investigation, but it will also make the investigation objective. At least, the FBI have high tech equipment.”

Barias said that as of yesterday, 19 trucks of oil, water and grease had been siphoned off from the basement of Glorietta 2. “The contents of the trucks will be the subject of our analysis,” he said.

Barias said police were not discounting the involvement of Islamic militants from the Rajah Solaiman Movement or the Abu Sayyaf. The Abu Sayyaf is responsible for the country’s worst terrorist attacks, including a 2004 ferry bombing that killed more than 100.

The Rajah Solaiman Movement is an extremist group of Christians who converted to Islam. In 2005, the group helped the Abu Sayyaf carry out a Valentine’s Day bomb attack also in Makati that killed four people.

Defense Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor, an expert in terrorist groups, said it was too early to say who carried out Friday’s blast and urged the public to remain calm.

“Let us not feed on our own fears and let us not feed on paranoia,” Blancaflor said. “We should go on with our normal lives.”

Southern Police District director Chief Superintendent Luiso Ticman, in a power point presentation, said there were five possible sources of ignition, including diesel tank switches and four motor batteries.

Ticman, the lead investigator in the blast, said one of the batteries showed signs of damage.

He also said that a rectangular 3,500-liter capacity diesel tank had punctures and ruptured edges.

Entire Glorietta closed

The Makati City Engineering Office ordered yesterday the temporary closure of the entire Glorietta mall while checks are being made on its structural integrity.

“The City engineer’s office has issued a preventive closure order to the Ayala Land, owner of the Glorietta, to inspect the entire area of the Glorietta mall and determine whether it is still safe. The inspection is intended to determine up to what area has to be close or until where it has to be closed,” Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado told a press briefing.

City Engineer Nelson Morales issued the closure order, which took effect at 8 p.m. yesterday.

“The City engineer’s office will just certify what has to be preventively closed. They will conduct the inspection from the blast site to the entire Glorietta mall area,” Mercado said.

Makati police chief Supt. Gilbert Cruz said they have asked 100 more policemen, saying the city’s 585 policemen are not enough to secure the entire city.

“The ideal ratio is 1 police to 500 people. However, at present the ratio of police in Makati is 1 policeman to 1,600 people,” Cruz said.

Meanwhile in Cebu City, Environment Secretary Lito Atienza lashed out at Sen. Antonio Trillanes for his statement implicating the government in the blast.

For his part, Rep. Mujiv Hataman of the party-list group Anak Mindanao cautioned authorities against hastily blaming Muslim groups for the Glorietta incident.

“For the moment at least, they deflected the attention of people whose sound value system and basic sense of decency have been long offended  and incensed by big successive Malacañang money scandals,” Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said in his blog of the Glorietta incident.

Undersecretary Blancaflor told reporters that government would not discount any angle until “all the facts are in.”

But Blancaflor, who is also the spokesman for the Anti-Terrorism Council, expressed doubts on Rajah Solaiman Movement’s admission that it was behind the blast.

“The government will do anything under the law to find out the culprits,” he said.

Acting justice secretary Agnes Devanadera told reporters that “the public should know how President Arroyo was very much concerned over the matter and how she’s keeping a hands-on policy in government efforts to resolve the incident,”  –  With Aurea Calica, Jose Rodel Clapano, Marvin Sy, Katherine Adraneda, Mike Frialde, James Mananghaya, Jess Diaz, Eva Visperas, AFP