DOJ to probe Glorietta 2 whitewash allegations

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Thursday said her department will look into a retired military officer's allegations that the investigation into the October 2007 Glorietta 2 explosion was whitewashed to protect the previous administration. De Lima said she will assign her subordinates to verify the statements of retired Army Col. Allan Sollano, former head of the Army Explosive and Ordnance Disposal (EOD), who claimed Wednesday that an explosive caused the blast and that inquiry had been whitewashed to cover-up for the previous government under then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The Justice chief said she particularly wants to check if the former president was indeed part of the alleged cover-up and attempt to draw public attention away from other controversies at that time, particularly the NBN-ZTE scandal. "I will assign some people to look into that for the preliminary verification of facts disclosed by this retired officer. Why only now and what prompted him to come out?" De Lima asked. "What could be the motive for covering up? Is there a brewing scandal and that the government wants to divert the attention to that particular incident (blast)," she added. De Lima then referred to the previous administration's alleged penchant for covering up for controversies besetting it. "Why would a government be a party to an alleged cover-up? What's the ultimate agenda? Is it just part of the previous administration's propensity to lie and conceal?' she said. In an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer on the third anniversary of the explosion that killed 11 people and injured more than 100 others, Sollano said the blast that rocked Glorietta 2 on Oct. 19, 2007 was caused by an explosive device. ZTE deal? The blast happened at the height of the NBN-ZTE controversy, in which the government signed an overpriced $329-million national broadband contract with China's Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment (ZTE) Corp. Arroyo scrapped the deal on Sept. 22, 2007 when allegations of anomalies cropped up. On Oct. 5 that year, lawyer Roel Pulido filed an impeachment complaint against Mrs. Arroyo at the House of Representatives. The complaint was endorsed by Laguna Rep. Edgar San Luis. But the impeachment complaint never flourished. (See timeline of the controversy) The Office of Ombudsman has since cleared Mrs. Arroyo and her husband, former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, of involvement in the scandal. Only former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri and former Elections chief Benjamin Abalos were indicted before the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan. — DM/RSJ, GMANews.TV