NBI files charges vs Ormoc mall owner, manager over Christmas fire

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) filed yesterday criminal charges against the owner and manager of a shopping center in Ormoc City in Leyte where 26 persons were killed during a fire on Christmas Day last year.

Deputy Director Reynaldo Esmeralda, of the NBI-Regional Operations Service (ROS), said the bureau’s Eastern Visayas Regional Office in Tacloban City recommended for prosecution Ricardo Lim Brito, a naturalized Filipino citizen and owner of department store of Valenzuela City; and Cheng Yong alias Kenneth Tan, a Chinese citizen and store manager of Ormoc City and Sampaloc, Manila.

The criminal charges that were filed yesterday at the Ormoc City Prosecutor’s Office, included reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide and physical injuries and violation of Republic Act no. 6975 or an act regulating the sale, manufacture, distribution and use of firecrackers and pyrotechnics.

Esmeralda clarified that this was only the result of the initial phase of the investigation.

He said the NBI would also look into the liability of the building inspectors of the Ormoc City government.

"We would have to determine if the building inspectors could be charged with criminal and administrative charges. Why did they allow the store to sell the firecrackers without a permit from city hall?" said Esmeralda.

The investigators will also ask the building manager why the fire exit door was padlocked.

If the investigation finds the building inspectors liable, they could be charged with gross and inexcusable negligence under the anti-graft and corrupt practices act.

Special Investigator Remigio Lavilla Jr. and agent Edgardo Baldemos, of the NBI-Eastern Visayas, had reported that 26 people perished from the fire while 21 others were injured.

Unitop representatives are reportedly convincing the relatives of the fatalities to enter into an out-of-court settlement. In return for the P150,000 compensation, the relatives should sign a waiver of desistance.

Esmeralda said the bureau would still pursue the case even if the victims’ families decide to withdraw the complaint. The government would step in as the complainant in the case.

He added that it took them almost three weeks to complete the investigation because they had to interview and take down the statements of the surviving victims and witnesses and gather the death certificates and medico-legal reports of those who died in the blaze.

It appeared that at 4:30 p.m. several people were at the shopping center, doing their Christmas Day shopping, when a boy reportedly tested a firecracker that started the fire in the store.

Most of the shoppers and employees scampered out of the building, but others were not able to reach the door and they tried to look for another way out but they were trapped. — With Adolph Manimtim