RDX is Ayala's 'smoking gun' in Glorietta blast

BY DENNIS GADIL

AYALA Land Inc. (ALI), operator of Glorietta Mall, said it is keeping the RDX material found at the explosion site at Glorietta 2 as their "smoking gun" to prove that the October 19 blast that killed 11 people and injured hundreds of mall goers was caused by a bomb.

RDX is a chemical component used in making C-4 bombs, which could only be normally accessed by the military.

Jaime Ayala, ALI president, stood pat on their assertion that it was a bomb that destroyed the mall while the police stuck to their assessment that it was an accumulation of methane gas that triggered the explosion.

Ayala said they are not capitulating to the police findings just to end the controversy surrounding the blast. He said it was important for ALI to out its own findings for the sake of "public safety."

Senators and the police conducted a joint ocular inspection of the blast site yesterday. Senators said they will consult their own explosives experts but would rather focus on legislative interventions like amending, repealing or upgrading the Building Code, the Fire Code, the Human Security Act and the rules on disaster preparedness.

Sen. Gregorio Honasan, chair of the public order panel, said at least two more technical working group meetings would be held to consolidate the conflicting findings of the PNP and ALI.

Chief Supt. Luizo Ticman of the Southern Police District insisted that all evidence - scientific, physical, forensic, and documentary - point to a methane-gas explosion followed by a diesel-vapor-gas blast.

But biogas expert from the United Kingdom Dr. Stephen Etheridge maintained that biogas accumulation could not have caused the explosion, and forensics expert from Malaysia Aini Ling said traces of the explosive RDX were found at the explosion site.

Ticman said if RDX had really caused the explosion, traces of the explosive would be found everywhere, not in selected areas.