Another body recovered from Glorietta mall, toll rises to 10

(Updated 11 p.m.) Another body was found Saturday night at the blast site of the battered Glorietta 2 mall in Makati City, dzBB reported. The remains were positively identified by relatives as that of IT employee Maureen de Leon, 24, who was earlier reported missing by the Philippine National Red Cross. She was found among the debris in one of the locations damaged by the powerful blast. The death toll now climbed to 10. The PNRC has to look for three other persons reported missing after Friday afternoon's bloody explosion at the shopping mall. Radio dzBB on Saturday quoted a certain "Ms Jenny" from the Red Cross as saying that the three have not yet showed up after the incident. She said they were not also included in the list of patients who were treated in hospitals after the blast. The report said that according to relatives, the missing persons went to Glorietta but failed to go back home after the blast. DzBB said the Red Cross clarified that when it reported that the persons were "missing," it did not mean that the latter were assumed trapped inside the mall, amid piles of debris. Gonzales warning Also Saturday, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said the deadly blast at Glorietta 2 mall appeared to be “a sample" as he warned of more attacks in key cities in the country. Hours after Gonzales’s warning, an explosion rocked Iligan City early Saturday evening and at least three people were reported killed. The blast that occurred around 6:30 p.m. at a political meeting in Digkilaan, Iligan City, was reportedly caused by a grenade. ''What is more ominous here is they may be planning a bigger attack,'' Gonzales said on Vice President Noli de Castro's weekly radio program Saturday. ''They will first show a sample. That means that while the bomb yesterday (Friday) already was powerful, it is still just a sample,'' Gonzales said. In a separate radio interview, Gonzales said the attack on Glorietta 2 shopping complex was likely a “fund-raising" activity of terrorist groups. Gonzales said that based on one of the intelligence reports that the government received, a terrorist group was raising funds and needed to convince prospective donors. “Isang intelligence report, may terrorist group nagpa-fundraising. Kung hindi ka magaling walang popondo sa iyo. May ganyang reports a few days before the bombing (One of the intelligence reports we received was that a terrorist group is raising funds. If you can’t show you mean business, you cannot get funds)," Gonzales said in an interview on dzRH radio. A bomb made from high-grade explosives - and likely set off by terrorists - caused the blast that killed at least nine people and wounded more than 100 others at the mall, officials. The strong explosion ripped through three floors of the shopping complex Friday, hurling slabs of concrete, twisting steel reinforcements and shattering glass panels. Earlier police reports had said a fuel tank caused the blast. ‘It’s a bomb' ''It's a bomb, but as to what kind of bomb, we are still trying to determine,'' National Police chief Director General Avelino Razon said. ''More likely it's a terrorist attack, but what terrorist group? We have no indicator.'' Days ago, Razon ordered ''maximum security coverage'' at possible Mindanao terror targets, such as critical infrastructure, malls, transport hubs, and religious shrines, following police intelligence reports of possible terror bombings after the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Red Cross volunteers recovered the body of a man, the ninth fatality, buried under rubble inside the mall before dawn Saturday. The Red Cross reported that at least one more person remained missing. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered police to ''leave no stone unturned'' in their investigation. She called a Cabinet security meeting Saturday with police and military officials at the national police headquarters. Police bomb investigators told Mrs Arroyo they detected residue from the high explosive RDX at the blast site. At a news conference, a journalist asked the President who would benefit from such an attack. Visibly irked, Arroyo snapped back: ''It's the terrorists. Let us ask the terrorists.'' Several opposition politicians and Mrs Arroyo critics had suggested the government might be responsible for the bombing in a bid to divert attention from scandals plaguing her administration, over alleged overpriced projects and bribes to lawmakers to defeat an impeachment bid. Rewards offered Metropolitan Manila police chief Director Geary Barias said Mrs Arroyo authorized a P2 million reward for information on those responsible. Councilor Jejomar Binay Jr. said the Makati city government will offer a separate reward of P1 million for information on possible suspects if police officially declare the bombing a terror attack. Razon said he has ordered additional road checkpoints and deployed more officers to secure malls, airports and seaports, and bus terminals. Abu Sayyaf has been included on US and European terror lists. Abu Sayyaf militants, notorious for kidnappings and for beheading many hostages, have waged a bombing campaign for years in the Mindanao in their aim to establish a separate state for the area's majority Muslims. Abu Sayyaf and the Indonesia-based Jema’ah Islamiyah network have also launched attacks in Manila. Officials said Friday's blast appeared to have originated at the mall's ground-level loading dock for delivery vehicles, near the customer entrance. Taxi driver Mario Em said he had just dropped off two female passengers at the mall when the blast hurled the two women against his vehicle, killing them instantly. He said he pulled one of the victims, who was pregnant, from underneath his car. Several months ago, authorities were alerted to an alleged terror plot to plant bombs in Manila's business districts of Makati and Ortigas, a government counterterrorism official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. In 2004, Abu Sayyaf militants blew up a passenger ferry in Manila Bay, killing 116 people in the country's worst terrorist attack. - GMANews.TV with a report from AP