Tenants allowed to enter fire-hit Caloocan mall

MANILA, Philippines - Three days after the Ever Gotesco Grand Central mall fire was put out, tenants were finally allowed to enter the gutted building at around noon yesterday to salvage some of their belongings.

Norie Abdulracman, 46, a Gotesco tenant for three years, said after complying with the requirements set by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) inter-agency task force and signing a waiver, she was allowed to enter the mall at past noon. She said she was able recover most of her store’s contents.

“We were made to sign a waiver stating that the mall management and the DILG task force would not be held liable for anything that will happen to us while inside the building,” Abdulracman said.

According to her, the mall’s security personnel and DILG representatives accompanied her and some of her workers while they were retrieving her wares, made up of home décors and other accessories.

“We were at the basement and most of the stalls their were still intact, including the restaurants,” she said.

Task force personnel refused to be interviewed, and mall guards would not allow members of media to enter the mall.

Investigators have yet to determine what caused the fire, which broke out March 16 and lasted four days.

Controversy hounds fire chief

Amid allegations of incompetence and a reported addiction to alcohol, firefighters sympathetic to former Caloocan fire chief Oscar de Asis raised a howl after he was sacked from office four days ago.

“There was no evidence or investigation, yet they relieved him,” they said. “If this could happen to a ranking officer like De Asis, how much more if it happened to lesser mortals like us?”

Sources said De Asis was relieved for his failure to put out the fire as soon as possible and following reports that his alcohol addiction has seriously affected his performance on the job. Some of his co-workers said he was sleeping off a binge at the height of the blaze.

De Asis has accepted the relief order Friday and packed his bags.

In a March 20 memorandum order, DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo assigned De Asis to the the office of Bureau of Fire Protection regional director Chief Superintendent Santiago Laguna, reportedly “on floating status.”

De Asis was replaced by Superintendent Roel Jeremy Diaz. The order did not specify the reason for De Asis’ relief because it was “in the interest of the service.”

– Pete Laude, Jerry Botial