FBI, Australian experts help probe Philippines blast
MANILA (AFP) — FBI and Australian investigators were Monday helping Philippine detectives investigate a bomb attack on a Manila shopping mall which left 11 dead, police said.
Other international forensic experts have also been called in to assist with the probe of Friday's bombing of the Glorietta mall in the Makati financial district, Manila police chief Director Geary Barias said.
"The task force (investigating the blast) has also recruited metallurgical, forensics and petrochemical experts, aside from the FBI and Australian Federal Police ...to help evaluate the blast site materials," Barias told reporters.
National police chief Director General Avelino Razon said investigators were probing all angles after police found traces of chemicals used in military explosives at the mall.
The blast left a huge crater near a restaurant area and destroyed shops up to the fourth floor of the mall.
Police said the explosion came from the mall's basement, where bunker fuel and industrial waste -- which emits methane -- were kept. They said they were also looking at the possibility that the blast could have been an accident.
"We're not at that stage of concluding what happened," Razon told reporters, but reiterated that chemical analysis done by local police on samples from the site indicated the presence of "RDX," the main ingredient for C-4 military explosives.
Police were "working round the clock and exerting all efforts to get to the bottom of this incident," Razon said.
"We are considering all possibilities, we would base our findings on evidence and fact," he said.
Manila police chief Barias said forensics experts who have been sifting through the rubble however have so far not found bomb components such as a timing device, power source and switches.
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.
Defence 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."
Security remained tight around the capital Monday, with troops guarding key installations and major checkpoints in major thoroughfares.
Security fears also hit the financial markets, with the Philippine Stock Exchange composite index plunging 3.98 percent, its biggest single-day loss since August 16.
