The police will file criminal charges against 14 people—three fire safety inspectors and 11 private sector officials— for the October 19 blast at the Glorietta 2 mall in Makati City that killed 11 people and injured at least a hundred.

Chief Supt. Luizo Ticman, Southern Police District police chief and head of the multi-agency task force that investigated the blast, told a press briefing that the three fire inspectors also face civil charges along with another colleague, who was spared a criminal case.

The National Police top brass finally presented their report today that took barely three months to finish. It said that the blast was caused by two explosions: a methane explosion triggered by a spark caused by either automatic switches or other sources of ignition and a diesel explosion. Methane was produced because the sewerage system was not working properly, according to the report.

“The explosion of the accumulated methane caused the sudden rise in temperature and build-up of pressure causing damages, particularly on the raised flooring and the original concrete flooring,” the report said. The rise in the tenperature, the report added, caused the diesel fuel in the tanks to build up vapors until it reached critical range and caused the second explosion.

The PNP recommended the filing of charges of reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide and physical injuries, and gross neglect of duty causing undue injury against a total of 15 people. The list includes engineers from the Ayala Property Management Corp. and some officials of MARCHEM Industrial Sales and Services, the company hired by Ayala to maintain the building. Ayala owns the mall.

Ayala Land said they were “disappointed” over the final report because it apparently ignored the evidence that they said they shared with the police to debunk the methane gas theory. Ayala maintained that “there was no methane or diesel fume produced, and no pressure or gas compression was created to generate the kind of explosion that actually happened.”—Jesus Llanto

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