Separate probes of Cebu warehouse fire underway

CEBU — Is this a case of too many cooks trying to stoke up the embers?

Eyebrows are being raised as to why so many investigations seem to be underway into the suspicious Thursday fire that destroyed a Cebu Port Authority warehouse used by the Bureau of Customs to store an assortment of goods.

Rep. Antonio Cuenco suspects the fire was deliberately set and bewailed the failure of Customs to ensure the safety of the goods under its care.

"Why did this happen? Was it not protected from fire?" Cuenco said as he called for an immediate and thorough investigation.

And as the different investigations started swinging into action, the true cost of the fire also soared to dramatic heights than previously estimated.

Hours after the fire, Cebu Customs district collector Lourdes Manaoang said goods valued at P70 million to P100 million could have gone up in smoke. Fire officials submitted an estimate of P93 million.

The Bureau of Customs used the huge 8,000-square-meter warehouse to store not just seized smuggled items like luxury vehicles but also legitimately imported goods whose documents are awaiting clearance.

But the initial estimate could soar drastically as Customs broker Alfredo Lanticse said that among the items burned were 30 container vans of raw materials intended for the Mactan Export Processing Zone amounting to P160 million.

Some P10 million worth of brand new equipment for the Cebu Doctors University Hospital also got burned in the fire, according to another broker, Deo Alberca.

Mangaoang herself said she was not ruling out arson and has called on the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct an investigation.

NBI regional director Medardo Delemos confirmed that Mangaoang called him for assistance in investigating the incident.

He said the NBI probe would focus on the possibility that the fire was deliberately set to hide the disappearance of some shipments.

The NBI probe requested by Mangaoang is separate from the one conducted by fire authorities.

But aside from these twin investigations, yet another Customs official flew into Cebu the other day to announce that an inter-agency task force was being created to investigate, with the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) as the lead investigator.

Customs Enforcement Security Service chief Nestorio Gualberto arrived from Manila to meet with different law enforcement agencies to create an inter-agency task force to investigate the fire, as well as to determine if the incident had anything to do with the discovery last week of an alleged attempt to spirit out a van of smuggled luxury vehicles from Customs custody.

Gualberto used to head the CIDG during the time of former President Joseph Estrada.

Gualberto met with regional police director Eduardo Gador, CIDG regional director Oscar Catalan, and representatives of police intelligence, fire, maritime police and Customs.

Catalan said the task force will coordinate with the NBI which has created its own three-man probe team. — Freeman News Service