Execs say fire in ARMM agency 'accidental'

COTABATO CITY, Philippines --- Fire probers said the fire that gutted  a supply storage facility here of the health department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao less than 500 meters away from the office of ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman was accidental.

The city’s fire marshal, Adam Guiamad, told Catholic station dxMS here via mobile phone Thursday morning that their two investigators dispatched to the fire scene, one regular fire prober and the other an expert on arson investigation, are focusing on the “accident” angle  as the possible cause of fire.

“We don’t’ see an arson angle here. We’re not concluding yet right now but there are more reasons for us to view the incident as something accidental. We could not figure out if the building hit by fire was a storage facility, a stockroom because there was no proper filing of the supplies kept there. There were narrow alleys inside,” Guiamad said in Filipino.

Guiamad said investigators have yet to  get the statements of employees of the ARMM’s Department of Health working in the building and surrounding offices when the fire broke out.

Guiamid also clarified that the building was not totally razed, contrary to spreading stories.

“The supplies kept in the building were not all destroyed. Only those on top of the filed supplies were burned,” Guiamad said.

The executive department of ARMM has organized a team of regional officials to help investigate  the August 27 conflagration that hit a supply storage facility here of the ARMM’s health department.

The Regional Communication Group, in an emailed statement, said the team, to be led by Regional Executive Secretary Laisa Alamia, is composed of representatives from the National Bureau of Investigation and Intelligence, the Security Services Division of the Office of the Regional Governor, and the ARMM’s Bureau of Fire Protection.

ARMM officials were incensed by a published report last Wednesday purporting an arson angle on the conflagration, quoting a provincial health official as suspecting that among those possibly burned were questionable procurement documents.

ARMM insiders said a  visibly irked Hataman instructed key officials of the region’s ComGroup, during a closed-door meeting afternoon of Wednesday, to immediately organize a press briefing to update journalists covering the region  about the incident.

“The governor was saddened by that report. The investigation has not even started yet,” said a highly-placed source at the Office of the Regional Governor.

The fire, which started past 10 a.m. Tuesday, was controlled an hour later by responding firemen from a station of the ARMM’s fire bureau inside the 32-regional government compound here, from the city’s fire department, and from municipal fire stations in nearby towns.

“Who in his proper frame  of mind will (commit) arson in broad daylight, in the presence of so many employees working around? That’s too preposterous...,” said eye surgeon Kadil Sinolinding Jr., ARMM’s health secretary.

Sinolinding said people spreading stories that their supply storage facility was deliberately burned should come out in the open and present evidence to support their speculations.  - John Unson