Tondo folk doubt fire was ‘accidental’

Residents of Isla Puting Bato in Tondo, Manila, are unconvinced that the fire that razed their community on May 11 was an accident.

“They expressed skepticism at the idea that the fire was caused by a child playing with candles,” said Tondo Councilor Dennis Alcoreza.

“The fire spread too fast. They feel it was intentional,” said Alcoreza who heard out the fire victims at a Manila council committee hearing held in the community Wednesday.

Alcoreza and another councilor, Ernesto Dionisio, passed a resolution last week for the council to hold hearings to investigate the fire that left homeless more than 5,000 people, mainly from the community’s Purok 1 and 2. Wednesday’s hearing was attended by councilors of District 1, Isla Puting Bato residents, and a representative from the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP).

Alcoreza said the residents’ suspicion that the fire was not accidental was bolstered by the BFP’s admission that its report on the cause of the fire came from only one source—the purok leader. But he also noted that the BFP investigation is still going on.

The fire victims also questioned the Philippine Ports Authority for preventing them from rebuilding their homes which had stood on PPA property. The houses that caught fire two weeks ago were mostly located on the breakwater of the PPA property.

In a letter to the Manila city government after the fire, the PPA appealed for help to relocate the residents as the area where they had erected their homes was a danger zone.

“Why are we being asked to leave at this time when we have just suffered the loss of our homes? It makes us think that perhaps the fire had not been an accident, that it was deliberately started,” said the Samahang Maralita ng Isla Puting Bato, Tondo Inc. in a letter to the city council.

The victims have been evacuated to the Del Pan Sports complex in Tondo while plans for their relocation, supposedly to Bulacan, are being processed by the National Housing Authority.

The fire victims appealed to the city council to help them convince the PPA to allow them to at least put up temporary shelters from the remains of their destroyed homes, while plans for their relocation are being worked out.

“While the matter is still under discussion, why not declare the site of the fire as a staging area for our eventual relocation? The Del Pan Sports complex is so crowded and many have already fallen ill,” they said in their letter, signed by their president, Mansor Utto and 11 officers.

Alcoreza said that since the fire victims were not allowed to bring in construction materials to rebuild their homes, some have been living in tents at the site of their burned homes.

“We are not opposed to the plans for our place but we wish these be done in accordance with law, with the process prescribed in the Urban Development Housing Act. Don’t do it through the use of force and by burning down our houses because we are also human beings who ought to be treated in a humane manner,” Utto said.