PNP forms task force to probe factory fire, help identify victims

The Philippine National Police (PNP) has formed a task force to assist the Bureau of Fire Protection and the local government of Valenzuela City in the retrieval operations, identification of victims and investigation on the fire that killed at least 72 people on Wednesday.

READ: Death toll in Valenzuela factory fire rises to 72

PNP officer in charge Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, in a televised briefing on Thursday, said the task force will be led by deputy chief for operations of the Northern Police District Senior Superintendent Edgar Danao.

“Since last night, the PNP has been giving full-force assistance to restore immediately the order. Every time there’s an incident like this, we restore order, contain traffic, secure relatives of casualties in a specific area, also to prevent crisis incidents like looting,” Espina said.

Espina also tapped seasoned investigators from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group who had probed the Serendra explosion in 2013. They will assist arson investigators from the BFP.

BACKSTORY: Negligence, gas triggered Two Serendra blast–Roxas

As of posting time, CIDG investigators have started to interview witnesses and relatives of the victims.

Part of the task force is the PNP’s sending of at least 40 Scene of the Crime Operations to speed up the identification of the victims. Many of the bodies were charred beyond recognition.

READ: Remains of trapped workers retrieved from razed Valenzuela factory

Once all the victims have been accounted for and identified, Espina said the PNP will immediately press charges against persons who will be found responsible for the deadly incident.

“Sigurado may kaso ‘to, kasi may mga namatay eh. Dinedetermine namin kung anong nangyari so we would clearly define kung anong kaso,” he said.

(There will be cases filed because people died. We are still determining what really happened so we can clearly define what cases to file.)

In the same briefing, Danao said the police task force had started to gather the pertinent documents, including the building permits and clearances of  Kentex Manufacturing Inc.’s factory.

Police also said that owners of the factory have been cooperating with them since the fire razed the two-storey building in Barangay (village) Ugong. IDL