October 19, 2007 - The blast, which occurred during lunch-hour, spread panic in the city of 12 million people, which has in the past been the scene of attacks by Muslim separatist rebels.
Several shoppers said the blast was heard from a nearby baby store in the mall. Liana Navarro, sister of Black and White Movement’s Leah Navarro and who was in the mall with her mother, said several people including children were seen with "obvious injuries."
Another witness, Arel Vertucio, said the explosion was so strong that it was felt up to the third level of the mall. Vertucio said he saw some people lying on the ground.
Eyewitness Icy Marinas was only 15 meters away from the Glorietta explosion when it occurred. She said the blast felt like an "intense earthquake."
She said she saw a pregnant woman crying after the blast while other women started rushing out of the mall with their families. She added that she saw "three bloodied men" near the blast site while the security guards just stood around with no reaction.
Charlie Nepomuceno, an employee at the Glorietta mall, said the powerful explosion appeared to have centered on an escalator.
"It left a deep crater at the foot of the escalator," he said. "It also ripped open the roof of the building. I saw a man thrown on to the roof who had lost a leg."
He said a badly mangled body of a woman was near the escalator.
Manila has largely been spared a spate of bomb attacks by Muslim rebels that have plagued the southern Mindanao region. But it has been hit in the past. A series of bomb blasts in 2000 killed at least 22 people.
President Arroyo ordered the police to "leave no stone unturned" in its investigation on the explosion.
"The President is deeply saddened by this incident and extends her sympathies to the families of the casualties…She has also ordered the PNP to get to the bottom of things and to leave no stone unturned," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said in a statement.
Bunye said the President also ordered the Department of Social Welfare and Development to extend assistance to the victims.
Arroyo in a statement Friday early evening also issued a stern warning against those who want to take advantage of the Makati mall blast.
"I warned those who seek to destabilize our government not to exploit this incident for their selfish political motives," Mrs. Arroyo said following her emergency meeting with the NSC and other officials in Malacañang.
Mrs. Arroyo said that the government is undertaking measures to ensure that the incident would not happen again including ordering the Philippine National Police to go on a high alert and the deployment of additional 2,000 cops in Metro Manila.
"This is a time for all of us to unite. Sana ay maunawaan ng ating mga kababayan ang mga pag-iingat na ating isinasagawa. Maraming salamat po sa inyong lahat (I hope our countrymen understand the measures we are implementing. Thank you)," she said.
After her NSC meeting, Mrs. Arroyo immediately went to visit patients confined at the Makati Medical Center who were among those injured during what authorities called a possible terrorist attack in the upscale mall in Makati City. With reports from Reuters, Agence France-Presse