DOLE urged to enforce stricter labor inspection following NCCC Mall blaze

MANILA, Philippines — A group of workers in the Business Process Outsourcing industry on Wednesday called for stronger labor enforcement and inspection in the wake of the fire incident in a mall in Davao City that claimed at least 37 lives.

"Accidents are not acts of divine providence that can be dismissed as unavoidable. Instead, accidents are the result of unsafe acts and therefore preventable by strict enforcement of occupational safety and health and labor standards," Rossie Hong, chairperson of I-Shield (Secured and Healthy Initiative Labor Defense), said in a statement.

I-Shield, formerly Inter-Call Center Association of Workers, is an accredited labor representative from Region VII Information and Communications Technology Tripartite Council.

Fire broke out at the NCCC Mall on the morning of December 23, Saturday. Trapped in the area were some 37 workers of BPO company, SSI.

It took almost 32 hours for the Bureau of Fire Protection to douse the flames and declare "fire out."

However, the bodies of the trapped workers were only recovered on the afternoon of December 25. Identification is still ongoing as of reporting.

READ: Families lose breadwinners in Davao city's NCCC Mall blaze

"Heads must roll and justice must be served for the needless deaths and injuries to our fellow BPO workers," Hong added.

Where are the trade unionists?

I-Shield also slammed the Department of Labor and Employment for its "lax implementation of labor and safety standards." The group urged the labor department to mobilize its "trade unionists who were recently trained to be labor inspectors."

"The deputization of unionist as inspectors was a demand of labor groups in the wake of the Kentex and HTI tragedies as a means to augment the number of inspectors and involve labor groups in enforcement," the group said.

In July this year, the DOLE trained 55 volunteers to serve as labor compliance officers to assist in the assessment and inspection of establishments across the country.

The said volunteers received training at the Occupational Safety and Health Center in Quezon City.

But I-Shield lamented: "However months after being trained and deputized, none of the unionists have been given mission orders by the DOLE for actual inspections."

Fire incidents probe

The NCCC fire was not the first incident in working zones in recent years.

In February this year, fire engulfed a factory at the Cavite Export Processing Zone in General Trias, Cavite. At least 100 employees working for the House Technologies Industries Ltd. were hurt in the incident

In May 2015, at least 74 people working at Kentex footwear factory in Valenzuela City perished in the fire.

A day after Kentex factory fire, report from authorities has shed light on the cause of the fire.

RELATED: More forensic experts sent to Valenzuela fire site

Incumbent Valenzuela Mayor Rexlon Gatchalian was charged with graft and reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide and multiple injury over the case. The Court of Appeals, however, in a decision in January 2017 dismissed the case against Gatchalian. The court held that the duty to enforce the Fire Code falls on the BFP, and not on the local government unit.

Four days since the NCCC incident, however, very little details were given to the public—a notable difference in the unfolding of details in similar incidents.

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte also on Wednesday said that the Bureau of Fire Protection National Office is overtaking the investigation on the incident, to quell accusations that the probe may be "biased."

Both the National Bureau of Investigation and the DOLE regional office are also conducting parallel probes in the NCCC Mall fire.

Davao City remains a stronghold of the Dutertes over decades. President Rodrigo Duterte sat as mayor of the highly urbanized city in the south for almost 20 years before the firebrand leader gunned for the chief executive position in the 2016 national elections.

Meanwhile, the president, who was also seen weeping with the families of those killed in the fire, vowed that the "truth must come out" in the incident.