Tuesday, October 23, 2007 Editorials: Speculations on Glorietta 2 blast
EVEN before investigators could finish sifting through the bombed portion of Glorietta 2 in Makati City, theories on who was behind it were already thrown around.
This is not surprising given the penchant of many Filipinos to sow intrigues and paint scenarios based more on bias than on careful study of available facts and evidence.
The situation was not helped any by police officials who could not seem to put their acts together even on such a simple task as providing information to the media.
While Philippine National Police Director Avelino Razon was telling reporters that the blast was set off by a bomb, National Capital Region Police Office Chief Geary
Barias announced to another group of reporters they were looking into the accident angle.
What kibitzer-speculators and some top ranking police officials have said must therefore be frustrating for investigators who have yet to complete gathering evidence.
Probe
Then there are the politicians who could not seem to prevent themselves from using last Friday’s Glorietta 2 blast for their own political ends.
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, for example, is behind bars and any idea he has about the incident is either speculative or based on hearsay considering his situation.
The only positive thing one can get out of his claim that the Arroyo administration bombed Glorietta 2 is that it tended to ensure no-nonsense probe of the incident.
The flip side of that is the political opposition is either using it as a propaganda tool against Malacañang or to at least put doubts on the integrity of the probe on the blast.
Angles
It is wrong, of course, to immediately brush aside the administration-as-bomber angle just as it is not correct to conclude anything while the investigation is ongoing.
Honest probers include all angles, even the most outlandish, in pursuing clues.
But looking into possibilities and politicizing the incident are two different things.
The first one is an important tool in ferreting out the truth while the other, being guided by a political agenda, muddles the effort to get into the bottom of the blast—which is unfair to the public and more so to the victims of the incident.
