Manila: Officials have yet to come up with definite findings on the cause of a Friday evening explosion at an apartment in suburban Taguig City that killed three people.
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas was quoted as saying in television reports that authorities were still trying to gather more information on the blast at the Two Serendra condominium at the Bonifacio Global City in Southern Metro Manila.
He said the site of the blast had so far turned up negative for bomb or explosive residues that could indicate that the explosion had been intentional.
"Three bomb-sniffing canines scoured the site and they did not show any indication that a bomb was used," Roxas said.
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Around 8 pm on Friday, a powerful blast ripped through unit 501 of the recently built building B of the Two Serendra condominium, destroying a section of the flat as concrete debris from the residential unit fell on a delivery van and a passenger vehicle that were passing through the area.
The blast caused panic at the nearby Market! Market! Mall.
According to Roxas, two passengers, Jeffrey Umali, 33, and Marlon Baldiola, 29, were killed as well as driver Salimar Natividad, 41, after a section of a concrete wall of the condominium fell on their delivery van.
The tenant of condominium 501, identified as Angelito San Juan, suffered serious injuries as a result of the explosion while an American occupant of a sixth floor unit of the residential building was also hurt along with another Filipino and two minors.
The owner of Two Serendra, Ayala Land Inc., said they would pay for the damages caused by the explosion. "We sympathise with the families of the victims," Ayala Land Inc. president Antonino Aquino Aquino said.
For his part, President Benigno Aquino III, who visited the blast site on Friday evening, said he had asked government agencies to pool their expertise to determine the cause of the explosion.
"The President has strictly ordered to find out the real cause of the explosion. The findings of the agencies concerned should be solid and stand scrutiny by anybody," deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said.
Valte promised that there would be no cover-up in the inquiry and the government would make the results of the probe public once investigators piece together evidence of what had caused the blast in Serendra Place.
"If there are any specific measures to be undertaken in light of what happened on Friday night, that will depend on the findings of the investigative team," Valte said.
The explosion at the Two Serendra is the latest mishap involving an Ayala Land property. In 2007, a powerful explosion, said to have been caused by accumulated gas inside a septic tank, at the Glorietta 2 in Makati City, killed 11 people and injured 129.
01 Jun, 2013
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