Prosecutors and judges, and not the Taipei City Government, are in a position to judge whether the First Commercial Bank is to blame for the collapse of Taipei's Tunghsing building (
Accompanied by city councilors, surviving residents of the collapsed 12-story building on Pateh Road petitioned city officials yesterday to help them file lawsuits against the First Com-mercial Bank and build a new housing complex on the site.
The group claims that renovations at the bank, located on the first and second floors of the building, were partly responsible for the collapse that killed 73 people and injured over 100. Fourteen others are still officially listed as missing, under regulations that call for a one-year period before missing persons can be officially pronounced dead.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
But a city-entrusted investigation report by the Taipei Civil Engineers' Association earlier this month did not include the renovations at the bank as one of the factors leading to the collapse. Instead, the report attributed the collapse to defects in the building's design, structure and construction.
On Nov. 8, Taipei district chief prosecutor Yang Hsiu-lan (
But bank officials were not on the list.
Survivors then pressed charges against the bank's general manager, and urged prosecutors to continue investigating the mishap.
Yesterday, survivors expressed outrage at the state of their current legal battle.
Lee Sheng-hsieh (
Survivors also said they suspected certain people with political influence had been working behind the scenes to pressure the city government into refusing to help them challenge the bank.
DPP city councilor Chen Shui-hua (
City officials, however, denied the phone call took place.
"I strenuously deny claims that city officials ever called former residents to ask them not to file a suit against the First Commercial Bank," the mayor said.
Ma said the city government is not in a position to make statements on whether the bank is to be held responsible for the collapse, adding that he would respect the results of an ongoing legal investigation.
He said the government had also entrusted the Civil Engineers' Association to help investigate the cause of the collapse.
Meanwhile, Deputy Mayor Ou Chin-der (歐晉德), who had been in charge of rescue operations at the site, said it was untrue that he had declined to offer professional assistance to civil engineers who were collecting evidence soon after the tremor destroyed the building Sept. 21.
"At that time, many residents told me they suspected renovation work at the bank was to blame. So I told civil engineers to pay particular attention to that. I told them to look into the situation immediately," Ou said.
But residents said they hoped the city government would do more, such as helping them collect evidence against the bank.
"I pleaded to the city government to help us collect evidence to fight the lawsuit," Lee said, adding that the only corner that had collapsed in the building's basement was the one near the intersection of Pateh Road and Hulin Street.
"This [referring to the intersection] is where the pillars first collapsed," Lee said, based on what he said were witnesses' accounts of the collapse.
Ma agreed to help, saying that any possible evidence held by the city government, such as photos and videotapes taken at the site, is open to survivors of the collapse.
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