Philippine President Gloria Arroyo yesterday ordered a thorough investigation of a Manila hotel blaze that killed 72 people and said those responsible would be prosecuted.
Investigators were rummaging through the gutted interior of the Manor Hotel in Manila's Quezon City suburb, trying to determine the cause of the blaze. Officials said the hotel had been warned last year about its poor safety standards.
Fire Chief Francisco Senot said there was a report from a witness that a hotel fire exit was padlocked shut.
PHOTO: AP
All the victims of the early Saturday blaze were apparently Filipinos, mostly from the provinces and in Manila for a weekend gathering organized by Christian evangelists.
The hotel is in a lower middle-class area, far from the capital's tourist districts.
"The president said she wants a complete investigation to find out who was responsible, that the culprits will have to be charged," Interior Secretary Jose Lina said.
Investigators said the two-hour fire which broke out before dawn on Saturday started in a karaoke bar on the third floor as a steady rain pelted the Manila area.
City officials had said that 75 people were killed but Senot said yesterday 72 bodies had been recovered and only one was charred, suggesting that the others died of asphyxiation.
About 50 people were injured.
It was the worst fire disaster in the country since March 1996, when 160 people, mostly teenagers, were killed in a discotheque, also in Quezon City.
Under the law, establishments are entitled to four notices of failure to comply with the safety code before they can be closed down, unless they rectify the flaws, fire officials said.
Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte told Manila's ANC television the hotel owner had contacted authorities but had yet to appear, presumably because "he is talking to his lawyers."
Belmonte said relevant officials would be punished if it was discovered that safety rules were ignored or poorly enforced.
"We have to pinpoint responsibility. ... We mean business. I hope heads will roll," Belmonte said.
Manila newspapers said the hotel had violated some building codes.
"The bodies told the story," said the Philippine Daily Star. "They weren't charred; most of them weren't touched by flames at all. Instead, the victims had suffocated to death, trapped in a building with inadequate fire safety facilities."
"There are many other buildings in Metro Manila that blatantly violate fire safety rules. How many more horrific fires will it take before officials come down hard on the owners of these death traps?"
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2