Cops start Glorietta post-blast probe

The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Sunday morning started their post-blast investigation into last Friday’s Glorietta 2 mall blast in Makati City. Radio dzBB reported that a team led by Makati City police head Supt. Gilbert Cruz had the mall’s ground zero cleared of diesel fumes as they prepared to enter the area. Cruz will lead a team in the post-blast investigation. The team includes members of the Explosives and Ordnance Division and the PNP Crime Laboratory. The team will recover debris from the ground zero area for analysis. Meanwhile, the Anti-Terrorism Task Force (ATTF) doubted that the Rajah Solaiman Group could fulfill its threat to pull off another bombing in Metro Manila. The group earlier claimed responsibility for the Glorietta blast. ATTF head Ricardo Blancaflor said they cannot accept at face value the claim of one Sheik Omar claiming responsibility for the incident that killed 10 people, and hurt at least 113 others. Still, Blancaflor said they are now verifying and double-checking their data to see if the group indeed has the capability to conduct attacks. “We will not accept that. Kaduda-duda pa ‘yan. Ang assessment natin wala silang capability, ang last assessment namin walang capability sa Metro Manila. Kung may mag-claim dapat verify muna ng media ang sources nila (We will not accept that at face value. It is doubtful at best because our last assessment of the group is that it does not have the capability to stage attacks on Metro Manila. Any claim by any group must first be verified)," he said in an interview on dzXL radio. - GMANews.TV