DAVAO: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte vowed Tuesday to get to the truth about a blaze in his home city that killed 37 call center workers.
He said he made the promise during a meeting on Monday night with the families of those killed in a shopping mall fire in the southern city of Davao.
“I assured them... that the truth will — let the truth come out,” Duterte said. “That is what they are asking for. Just the truth of what happened.”
The justice and labor departments have ordered separate investigations into Saturday’s blaze.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre has said his office would investigate with a view to bringing criminal charges.
A spokesman for Davao City mayor Sara Duterte, the daughter of the president, also quoted her as promising to press charges if warranted by the results of the investigation.
The fire broke out in the four-story NCCC Mall shortly before it opened to shoppers. But it killed 37 people working in a 24-hour call center for US-based market research firm SSI on the top floor.
At a Davao hospital Tuesday families of the dead waited in a silence broken only by occasional sobs as government workers tried to identify the charred remains before releasing them to relatives.
Social welfare officers said that so far, five bodies had been turned over.
Rhen Muyco recalled the last words his 25-year-old daughter Renzi Nova spoke to her family as the fire raged Saturday.
“Ma, there is a fire here. If something happens to me, I love you all,” she said by mobile phone.
Labour Secretary Silvestre Bello said Tuesday his office was launching an inquiry separate from the justice department’s investigation.
“We just want to find out the cause of the fire and if there was compliance with safety and health standards,” he told AFP.
The Associated Labor Unions said the high death toll and the extent of the blaze suggested that rules on fire exits, sprinkler systems and other safety measures had not been followed.
Mall administrators have denied that fire exits were inadequate or blocked.
Deadly blazes occur regularly in the Philippines, with fire safety rules often disregarded due to corruption or exploitation.
The fire was just one of a series of tragedies that turned the usually festive Christmas season in the Philippines into one of grief for many.
At least 240 people were killed, with over a hundred still missing, when Tropical Storm Tembin struck the country’s main southern island of Mindanao on Friday, causing floods and landslides throughout the weekend.
On Monday 20 people were killed in a road accident in the northern Philippines as they headed for a traditional Christmas mass.
Philippines’ Duterte vows to get to truth of deadly mall blaze
Philippines’ Duterte vows to get to truth of deadly mall blaze
Hungary says it will block a key EU loan to Ukraine until Russian oil shipments resume
- Szijjártó said: “As long as Ukraine blocks the resumption of oil supplies to Hungary, Hungary will block European Union decisions that are important and favorable for Ukraine”
- Hungary’s decision to block the key funding came two days after it suspended diesel shipments
BUDAPEST: Hungary will block a planned 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) European Union loan to Ukraine until the flow of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline resumes, Hungary’s foreign minister said.
Russian oil shipments to Hungary and Slovakia have been interrupted since Jan. 27 after what Ukrainian officials said was a Russian drone attack damaged the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian crude across Ukrainian territory and into Central Europe.
Hungary and Slovakia, which have both received a temporary exemption from an EU policy prohibiting imports of Russian oil, have accused Ukraine — without providing evidence — of deliberately holding up supplies. Both countries ceased shipping diesel to Ukraine this week over the interruption in oil flows .
In a video posted on social media Friday evening, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó accused Ukraine of “blackmailing” Hungary by failing to restart shipments. He said his government would block a massive interest-free loan the EU approved in December to help Kyiv to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years.
“We will not give in to this blackmail. We do not support Ukraine’s war, we will not pay for it,” Szijjártó said. “As long as Ukraine blocks the resumption of oil supplies to Hungary, Hungary will block European Union decisions that are important and favorable for Ukraine.”
Hungary’s decision to block the key funding came two days after it suspended diesel shipments to its embattled neighbor and only days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Nearly every country in Europe has significantly reduced or entirely ceased Russian energy imports since Moscow launched its war in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Yet Hungary and Slovakia — both EU and NATO members — have maintained and even increased supplies of Russian oil and gas.
Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has long argued Russian fossil fuels are indispensable for its economy and that switching to energy sourced from elsewhere would cause an immediate economic collapse — an argument some experts dispute.
Widely seen as the Kremlin’s biggest advocate in the EU, Orbán has vigorously opposed the bloc’s efforts to sanction Moscow over its invasion, and blasted attempts to hit Russia’s energy revenues that help finance the war. His government has frequently threatened to veto EU efforts to assist Ukraine.
On Saturday, Slovakia’s populist Prime minister Robert Fico said his country will stop providing emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine if oil is not flowing through the Druzhba by Monday. Orbán’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, said earlier this week that Hungary, too, was exploring the possibility of cutting off its electricity supplies to Ukraine.
Not all of the EU’s 27 countries agreed to take part in the 90-billion-euro loan package for Kyiv. Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic opposed the plan, but a deal was reached in which they did not block the loan and were promised protection from any financial fallout.
