Ozone Disco owners to blame, ex-city engineer insists

MANILA, Philippines - The former city engineer of Quezon City is asking the Sandiganbayan to reverse its Nov. 20, 2014 decision that sentenced him and several others to serve a maximum of 10 years in prison in connection with the 1996 Ozone Disco tragedy.

In his motion for reconsideration, Alfredo Macapugay said Westwood Entertainment Co., which operated the disco, should be blamed for the overloaded electrical system that caused the fire, which killed 162 persons.

“The proximate cause of the fire and the consequent deaths, injuries and damages can be laid to the doorstep of Westwood itself,” he said.

The anti-graft court found him guilty of gross negligence and showing bad faith and manifest partiality in the issuance of two building permits and one certificate of occupancy to Ozone Disco between October 1991 to March 1996 even though no inspections were conducted.

Citing City Ordinance SP-33, Series of 1992, Macapugay said “the matter of electrical safety was then under the domain of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP).”

He alleged that Westwood “never applied for a certificate of occupancy for the first renovation of the supposedly separate structure with the dance floor.” No final inspection was conducted by the BFP and city government’s Building Official, Macapugay said.

He added that the firm hired an unlicensed electrician and an overloaded electrical system was “something that solely the owners and their electrician could foresee” since they had control over the electrical equipment they had installed and used.

The Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division also convicted Hermilo Ocampo and Ramon Ng, both stockholders and directors of Westwood.

Also convicted were Macapugay’s subordinates Donato Rivera Jr., officer-in-charge of the city government’s Building Official; field inspector Edgardo Reyes; assistant building official Francisco Itliong; Feliciano Sagana, chief of the engineering department’s processing division; engineer Petronillo de Llamas and building inspector Rolando Mamaid.