BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR

The PNP is looking into a possible breach of police security by the investigating team of the Ayala Land Inc. following the company’s statement that a foreign expert it hired to look into the October explosion at the Glorietta 2 conducted "swabbing" in nine areas of the blast site.

Ayala Land, owner of the Glorietta malls, made the statement Thursday after the PNP released its final report on the blast which killed 11 persons and injured at least 100 others.

The final report said a mixture of methane gas and diesel vapor that accumulated in the mall’s basement caused the explosion.

Ayala, which is disputing the gas explosion finding, said Malaysian expert Aini Ling, after the swabbing, found six areas in the blast positive for bomb residue.

Director Geary Barias, chief of the Metro Manila police, said the Ayala investigators, including Ling, could be charged with obstruction of justice if they went to the blast site without authorization.

PNP chief Avelino Razon Jr. said they have given Ayala permission to conduct its own investigations but it does not mean it could just access the explosion site without permission from the PNP.

He said an investigation is being conducted on a possible "violation of the police line."

"Hindi nga namin alam na nakapasok sila, hindi rin natin alam kung kalian sila pumasok," he said.

Barias said he would ask Chief Supt. Luizo Ticman, chief of the Southern Police District and of the multi-agency task force on the explosion, how Ayala’s expert was able to access the blast site.

Anyway, Barias said, "that becomes water under the bridge" because the Ayala finding looks "doubtful."

He said the first swabbing yielded negative results for RDX (research and development explosive), a main component of the C4 bomb. "Then they had to come back. And then when they came back, bakit positive na?" he said.

He said RDX traces component that might have been found could have come from a "contamination" or an "abrasion."

He said if the explosion was caused by a bomb or some other explosive, the RDX component would have been present in several areas and the explosion would have left greater damage.

Razon said it was expected that Ayala would question the PNP finding.

He said Ayala should just use its own finding as a "defense" in court.

The PNP recommended 15 persons charged with various offenses ranging from criminal negligence, gross neglect of duty to violations of the fire code.

Among them are personnel from the Ayala Property Management Corp. and officers of the Makati City Fire Station.

Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay and Ayala Land asked the PNP for a copy of the final report.

"I would like to see the entire report of the PNP. I just wanted to make sure that this is indeed the final report," said Binay who earlier noted the PNP has revised the report many times before finally making it public.

Alfonso Reyes, ALI spokesman, said without a copy of the final report, the company and even the public would not really know what the foreign experts who helped the local police in the Glorietta investigation said and what their inputs were.

"Where are the copies of the foreign experts’ report… by the Australian Federal Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the Israeli expert David Nevo?" he said.

Reyes said ALI, the country’s largest property developer, would stand by the findings of its forensics expert.

"The finding was validated by a laboratory examination in the United States and we believe in the result of the examination," Reyes said.

Chief Insp. Jose Embang, Makati fire marshal who was among those recommended charged, said it was his predecessor, Senior Supt. Arsenio Tabajonda, who issued a fire safety inspection certificate to the mall in 2006.

He said they failed to conduct an inspection last year because of a huge backlog and lack of personnel.

"We have only 24 fire safety inspectors and we have to inspect some 42,000 buildings here in Makati," said Embang, who was recommended charged with neglect of duty.

Senior Fire Officer 4 Anthony Grey, who has been with the Bureau of Fire Protection for the past 26 years, said it was his first time to be charged.

Grey said he and his colleague, Senior Fire Officer 2 Leonilo Balais, were not the ones tasked to inspect the entire Glorietta mall. He said they were assigned to the Luk Yuen restaurant and the office of the Makati Supermart Corp., which are mall tenants. – With Ashzel Hachero