Military explosives were used in a huge bomb blast at a Manila shopping mall that left nine dead and 113 injured, Philippine police said Saturday. Evidence collected from Friday's Glorietta mall blast indicates that the bomb "contained RDX, the main chemical component of C4," the police said in a report to Philippines President Gloria Arroyo. In the Philippines C4 explosive is only used by the military.The report was delivered at a top-level security meeting between the president and her security advisers at police headquarters in Manila. Arroyo immediately ordered the country's police chief General Avelino Razon to check its source and pin-point the culprits. "Is that already definitive... or is there going to be another more detailed finding of what kind of explosive was used?" Arroyo said during the briefing. "We need regular information bulletins on the status of the investigation."
Senior Superintendent Bert Ferro, who heads the police bomb data centre, said samples taken from the site leads him to "presume that those are of military ordnance components." A chemist from the centre told Arroyo that it was possible that more samples were being collected from the site, but "at this point in time, that is what we have."
Razon said the government was putting up a two-million-peso (45,454-dollar) reward for any information leading to arrests. No group has claimed responsibility for the blast, which came weeks after military intelligence foiled an alleged plot by Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants to bomb the southern port city of Zamboanga.
National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said authorities were also looking at the Abu Sayyaf as possible suspects, noting that the group may have carried it out as part of their campaign to attract funding from international terrorist groups.
The 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said Saturday it is "prepared to gather intelligence for the Philippine authorities if asked to do so," spokesman Eid Kabalu told AFP. "We would like to help out if asked. This could help the military at least eliminate some groups from their list of suspects," he said, adding that the offer was being made as a "sincere gesture" that could also help revive stalled peace talks.