GMA slams Manila officials over response to Baseco fire

President Arroyo chided Manila officials yesterday after she failed to contact any of them while fire of still undetermined origin was razing some 3,500 shanties in the squatters’ area in Baseco compound in Tondo.

Two toddlers were injured in the two-hour fire.

Alanie Balagbag, 5, and Dangdang Maunac, 1 and 3 months, were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Arson investigators said some P15 million worth of property was destroyed in the blaze.

Mrs. Arroyo said she was not able to talk with the chief of the Bureau of Fire Protection and that fire trucks failed to immediately arrive at the fire scene.

Councilor Kim Atienza was said to be the lone Manila official who was with Mrs. Arroyo at the scene and that he reportedly bore the brunt of the Chief Executive’s anger.

Mrs. Arroyo reportedly ordered Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, chairman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, to go at once to Baseco and take charge of fire-fighting operations.

Reyes said some 6,000 families or 47,000 people were affected by the fire which destroyed 3,499 shanties and 14 out of 18 blocks of the 52-hectare area.

Fire Officer 3 Romel Lorenzo said yesterday arson investigators have yet to determine the cause of the fire but they are not ruling out arson.

"We are coordinating with barangay officials to determine if somebody set the carinderia on fire or if it was just an accident," he said.

Lorenzo said witnesses told investigators the fire could have started in a carinderia or small eatery and immediately spread to adjacent shanties.

Narrow alleys prevented fire trucks from getting directly to the fire scene, making it difficult for firemen to place the fire under control, he added.

Mrs. Arroyo said the Armed Forces Engineering Brigade will start leveling the disaster site today so work could immediately start for the construction of five-story tenement buildings.

She was said to have scolded Manila Mayor Jose Atienza over the telephone yesterday because he had failed to complete the processing of papers for the awarding of the land to residents.

Atienza could start awarding land titles to the residents within a month, she added.

Mrs. Arroyo had earlier ordered Atienza to provide a 32 square- meter lot for every family living in Baseco instead of demolishing their shanties and transferring them to another place.

Manila police director Chief Superintendent Nicolas Pasinos was ordered to track down the people responsible for the fire, she added. –Paolo Romero, Cecille Suerte Felipe