Sunday, October 21, 2007 Cabaero: FBI offer By Nini B. Cabaero Beyond 30
HOURS after an explosion rocked a crowded shopping mall in Makati, reports filtered in that the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was willing to help in the probe.
The entry of the FBI, if it pushes through, could mean the blast that killed at least eight people and wounded some 100 others was terrorism-related. Why would this agency offer to help if it were an accident?
The US Embassy said, “We stand ready to provide all possible assistance to the Philippine National Police and the government of the Republic of the Philippines in their investigation of the explosion.”
But there is another benefit to having the FBI, or any outside investigating body for that matter, join the probe.
It is becoming crucial that the investigation be independent and its findings beyond reproach in the light of allegations that the government could have been behind the explosion as a tactic to veer the people’s attention away from scandals targeting Malacañang.
Shoppers at the Glorietta 2 mall were finishing up lunch or enjoying the mall’s pre-Christmas sale at about 1:30 p.m. last Friday when a powerful explosion changed the day’s course for them.
Initial reports said the explosion was caused by a leak in a liquefied petroleum gas tank at a ground floor restaurant but this angle was later ruled out in post-blast investigations.
Data released by police showed that such a powerful blast that toppled columns and roofs and blew a hole at the ceiling could not have been caused by a gas leak. Investigators found traces of what could have been explosive material, the kind available primarily to government military forces.
This angle raised speculations that, maybe, the scandal-filled administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was behind it to distract people from scandals involving payoffs and bribery.
Recent scandals included the alleged bribery of government officials to approve the national broadband project to Chinese firm ZTE Corp. and the alleged payoffs to national legislators who would be deciding on the latest impeachment complaint against Arroyo.
The emergency situation created by the blast at the Glorietta mall would take the people’s attention away from these scandals and the calls for Arroyo’s resignation, according to those pushing this angle.
They claimed that fears created by the mall incident would justify the imposition of martial law or the grant of emergency powers to the President or the implementation of provisions under the Human Security Act that would suspend civil liberties.
The investigation into the blast would be crucial to determine who were behind the act and what they had hoped to attain in creating panic and causing death.
Police and Armed Forces agencies are the proper bodies to undertake the probe, yet their conclusions may be questioned because they report to President Arroyo as their chief.
But if an outside party joins the investigation, there are better chances of the probe remaining impartial.
