Press Release
October 21, 2007

PIMENTEL SEEKS INDEPENDENT PROBE OF GLORIETTA MALL BOMBING BY TAPPING FOREIGN EXPERTS

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today called for an independent and truly impartial investigation of the bombing of the Glorietta Mall in Makati City by enlisting the services of probers of proven track record from other countries.

Pimentel said the people demand nothing less than a credible investigation of the tragic incident to dispel any suspicion over any attempt to influence or manipulate the outcome of the probe to ensure that it hews to the government's version of the perpetrators of this gruesome crime even at the expense of truth.

"People are demanding a true, credible and full public report after a transparent probe by independent, expert investigators of the Makati blast that took away 10 innocent lives and injured scores of other persons," he said.

He mentioned the United Kingdom's Scotland Yard, as a reputable crime investigating agency which the Philippines can request to probe the Glorietta Mall explosion.

Whether the bombing of the Glorietta Mall was deliberately carried out or not, the consequence of it is not only the death of 10 of our countrymen, but also to camouflage or overshadow the scandals that have rocked the administration, Pimentel said.

In fact, he said rigged broadband-ZTE contract, the Palace payoff to congressmen and governors and other anomalies in the Arroyo administration have been sidestepped and relegated to the background in the media as a result of the bombing incident.

Reacting to reports that the so-called Rajah Sulayman Movement has owned responsibility for the bombing, Pimentel expressed skepticism that the authorities seem to have a "predetermined efforts to blame Muslim extremists even before the investigation has not yet been completed."

"It is to the advantage of the government and the private sector, especially the business community, to enlist the services of experts from other countries to investigate the bombing even if they have to incur additional expenses, if we are to uncover the truth behind the incident," the minority leader said.

Pimentel said the Filipino people are entitled to know the truth and unless this is fully unraveled and ascertained, the culprits behind the Makati bombing will never be known and will go unpunished.

He expressed concern that the Glorietta Mall bombing may just be start of a wave of public disturbances which may be used by the administration to justify the declaration of a national emergency similar to what it did in February, 2006. The obvious objective, he said is to suppress the Senate's efforts to dig deeper into the broadband-ZTE deal, the Cyber-Ed project, the Palace payoff scam and other fraudulent transactions in a bid to keep Mrs. Arroyo in power.

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