On the Glorietta Bombing

Tirad Pass Brigade
October 21, 2007

The officers and men in the service belonging to the Tirad Pass Brigade join the Filipino people in condemning the cowardly bombing at the Glorietta Mall last Friday.

The TPB condoles with the victims and their relatives and friends in the pain and grief that have befallen them.

We are appalled at this horrendous crime. The power of the explosions were calculated to cause such a magnitude of damage and fear in proportion to the wickedness of the perpetrators.

We support Sen. Antonio Trillanes III's charge that this crime could only have been perpetrated by a highly clandestine team of armed mercenaries acting under the direction of Gloria Arroyo's key military and security officials.

There is truth in what Senator Trillanes said. Friday's Makati bombing is Oplan Greenbase all over. Only Gloria Arroyo and her inner circle of generals and henchmen have the motivation, capability and madness to carry out such a criminal deed with no concern at all that many innocent people would die and be hurt.

The objective of the Glorietta bombing was to divert the people's attention from the political scandals arising from the exposés regarding the multi-billion peso kickbacks pocketed by Arroyo and her closest minions and the bribery by Malacañang's of congressmen and other local government officials.

The Glorietta Mall bombing was meant to create a "destabilization" scenario that the Arroyo government has been "plotting" against itself.

The AFP and PNP's claim now that the so-called Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM) carried out the bombing is a ruse to cloud the issue and cover the actual perpetrators' crime. At the same time, it is self-indicative of Malacañang's hand in the bombing. The fact is that the RSM is only a chimera created in 2005 by the AFP's high command to serve as a convenient strawman to blame for the terrorist crimes perpetrated by its own forces.

National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales' statement that it will take ten more bombs to justify a declaration of martial law is a grim forewarning. We are reminded of the bombing of Joe's Department Store, the Good Earth Plaza and the Manila City Hall by the self-confessed Sgt. Mariano Gabutin and his special operations team three weeks before Marcos declared martial law in 1972.

Earlier, scores of other establishments were bombed by similar special operations teams dispatched by Malacañang, notably Plaza Miranda, the Constitution Convention Hall, the Congress building, the COMELEC building, the NAWASA main pipe in the San Juan-Quezon City boundary and Meralco offices. Anticipate more bombing operations by the AFP's special operations teams in preparation for a similar leap to more authoritarian rule by the present regime.

The Tirad Pass Brigade is determined to resist the terrorist and militarist designs of the present government and put an end to its bogus, corrupt and savage rule. We call on our comrades-in-arms in the AFP and PNP to make a stand and act now against the present dispensation and in defense of the people.

Maj. Rad Pasion
Tirad Pass Brigade