By SPA
Manila : Philippine police said Thursday they are filing criminal and administrative charges against 15 people for deadly blasts at a shopping mall that killed 11 people last year, which a probe blamed on gas explosions, DPA reported.
Chief Superintendent Luizo Ticman said the two almost simultaneous explosions at the posh Glorietta 2 shopping mall in Makati City in October 2007, which also injured more than 100 people, were not caused by bombs.
“The task force ruled out terrorism as the cause of explosions,” he said in a press briefing. “The explosions and the resultant death and damages were caused by methane and diesel vapor explosions.”
Ticman said the generation and accumulation of gas at the basement of the mall was due to the negligence of some personnel tasked to maintain the facilities.
“The explosions and the resultant damages were proximately caused by the aforementioned personnel,” he added.
Among those to be charged with criminal negligence were engineers and personnel of companies that were supposed to be maintaining the facilities as well as fire and building officials from the Makati City government and building.
Ticman said police set aside findings of British and Malaysian experts hired by the mall owners, Ayala Land Inc, which hinted that the blasts were caused by a bomb due to the presence of RDX, a bomb component, in the area.
He said that the bombing theory could not be sustained based on the physical evidence, including the absence of any crater at the “seat of the explosion” or the lack of soot or blackening on the ceiling of the blasted mall.