Court hits ex-QC exec’s delay tactic in 15-yr-old Manor Hotel fire case

Bodies from the August 2001 hotel fire are brought to Camp Karingal.—Inquirer file photo

The Sandiganbayan has denied a last-minute bid by a former Quezon City building official to have his graft case dismissed in connection with the 2001 Manor Hotel fire that left 74 people dead.

The Sandiganbayan’s Seventh Division said former city engineer and building official Alfredo Macapugay could no longer question its jurisdiction on the case after almost 15 years of taking part in court proceedings since he was charged in 2002.

“The court is extremely disappointed with the accused’s futile attempt to further delay the resolution of these cases by belatedly filing a baseless motion to dismiss,” read the Jan. 27 resolution penned by Justice Zaldy Trespeses. “This Court cannot countenance such a ploy by the accused, especially after so much time and resources have been spent trying these cases.”

The court directed Macapugay to file his memorandum within 10 days of being served the resolution, so the main case could finally be submitted for a decision.

Macapugay was accused of graft for allowing the owners of Manor Hotel to remain in business from 1999 to 2001 even after the city fire marshal had already recommended its closure.
On Aug. 18, 2001, a fire gutted the hotel and killed 74 guests, most of whom were trapped and could not escape through the steel-barred windows.

The case was considered to be in its final stage but Macapugay on Dec. 12 filed a motion to dismiss. He argued that the charge had nothing to do with his position as city building official, a designation which he said did not fall under the antigraft court’s jurisdiction.

But the court rejected Macapugay’s “attempts to push the cases out of the Sandiganbayan’s jurisdiction by feigning a dichotomy between his position as city engineer and as city building official.”

The functions of the local building official are “part and parcel of the powers and duties of the city or municipal engineer” under the Local Government Code of 1991.

In April 2015, the court’s Fifth Division sentenced Macapugay to six to 10 years in prison for graft in connection with the Ozone Disco inferno that killed 162 people on March 19, 1996.