MANILA, Philippines--A former military official and explosives expert who inspected Glorietta 2 shortly after an explosion rocked the mall in Makati City on Oct. 19, 2007, has insisted that it was caused by a bomb.

Retired Lt. Col. Allan V. Sollano, 47, who used to head the Philippine Army’s Explosives and Ordnance Division (EOD), said he had executed an affidavit in which he stressed that a bomb—not methane gas—
caused the blast that killed several persons and injured dozens.

Sollano, who retired in 2008 and is now based in Barangay Militar, Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, said he has been bedridden for about a year due to psoriasis and several other ailments.

Asked why he executed his affidavit two years after the explosion, he told the Inquirer over the phone, “I just want to tell my story. I might die soon.”

Sollano claimed that high-ranking officials told him to keep quiet about his findings after the police investigation veered toward methane gas as the cause of the blast.

“I couldn’t sleep. My conscience was bothering me,” he said. “I began to lose weight. Maybe, it was also the reason why now I am very sick.”

“[Based] on what I saw at the bomb site and based on my long experience as an EOD expert, the Ticman report is a blatant lie,” Sollano said in his three-page affidavit.

The police investigation was led by then Southern Police District director (SPD), Chief Supt. Luizo Ticman.

“[It] is not true that methane gas caused the explosion at Glorietta. From then until now, I believe that it was a bomb that caused the explosion at Glorietta,” Sollano said.

He recalled that when he and his team went to Glorietta, they saw a plastic bag which they believed was used to conceal the bomb.

He said he placed the plastic bag in an evidence bag and turned it over to police investigators.

In his affidavit, Sollano said even Ticman told him that the plastic bag tested positive for traces of the explosive ingredient RDX.

After several days, Sollano said then Army chief, Lt. Gen. Alexander Yano, told him to give a statement to the SPD about his findings.

“After I gave [my] statement, Army [Brig.] Gen. Ricardo David told me not to give a press conference or grant interviews to any member of the media,” he claimed.

“I was surprised when a conference was [held by] the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency about what happened at Glorietta … There, an American EOD expert spoke. He said the cause of the Glorietta explosion was methane gas,” Sollano said.