Frightened passengers inside the LRT Line 1 train started breaking glass doors and windows as a thick black cloud rose below the train tracks several meters away from the southbound platform of LRT-UN Avenue station at around 8:45 a.m., Monday, according to case investigator Senior Police Officer 3 Benjamin Madriaga of the Manila Police District Ermita – Station 5.

“Nung makita yung usok, bigla daw may sumigaw na “may sasabog” kaya dun na nagpanic yung mga tao,” he told the Manila Bulletin in an interview.

Madriaga said there were at least two persons who were injured during the commotion inside the LRT. He identified them as Caroline Santos, 20, of Sta. Cruz, Manila; and Jerico Tolentino, 32, of Tondo, Manila.

Both injured passengers were treated at the Central Station clinic for minor leg and foot injuries they sustained during the stampede.

But the MPD immediately dispelled suspicion of a terrorist attack on the train and attributed the smoke to a simple technical problem of the train.

LRT Administration public relations division head Evelyn Paragas likewise agreed with the findings of the MPD, saying that the minor technical problem encountered by train was magnified by the panic stirred among the passengers of the LRT Line 1 train (body number 1017).

“It was not a problem that was supposed to be scary. It was not even a major technical breakdown. The initial report was that a brake pad of the train had jammed causing the smoke. It was that person shouting that panicked the other commuters,” Paragas said.

“Some of the passengers pushed the emergency button. When the doors did not open right away, they resorted to breaking the tempered glass doors and windows. Everyone wanted to get off the train right away and did not wait for the automatic doors to open. They went through the broken glass doors and windows,” the LRTA public relations division head pointed out.

She said that based on Santos’ statement, she heard someone shouting that something was going to explode and forced her way through to the broken glass doors.

Reports from the MPD showed that a passenger approached Police Officer 1 Sherwin Loria, of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) and informed him that “they heard a loud thud coming from an unknown origin when the LRT train was approaching the Carriedo Station and upon reaching the LRT UN station, the incident happened.”

Paragas, meanwhile, said that the LRTA management is still deliberating on whether they would pursue charges against the passengers responsible for breaking the glass doors and windows of the train, but was quick to point out that it would be virtually impossible to identify them.

“I am still not sure if we would pursue them, given that what they did in panic to get off the train was a normal reac-tion. So I doubt if they could be blamed for that,” Paragas said

“The person we would like to identify and charge would be the one who shouted and triggered the panic,” she added.

Leonard Postrado, Manila Bulletin