DILG: No suspension for Tuguegarao City mayor over hotel fire

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines  – Tuguegarao City Mayor Delfin Ting, who is facing possible charges for the hotel fire that killed 16 people last Dec. 19, remains in office contrary to reports that the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) had placed him under suspension.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo, who was in this city over the weekend, belied in a press conference reports of Ting’s suspension in connection with the fire that hit the Bed and Breakfast Pension House.

“Mayor Ting (was) not suspended. (He) will be given due process,” said Robredo, adding that the mayor still has to go through an investigation to determine his possible liability in the tragedy.

Rumors of Ting’s suspension had circulated following the recommendation of a Department of Justice-led fact-finding panel for the filing of an administrative case against the mayor in connection with the fire that claimed the lives of 16 people, including 10 male nursing graduates. 

The nursing graduates of the Catholic-run University of La Salette in Santiago City, Isabela, were scheduled to take their licensure examination on the day the fire broke out.

Earlier, Ting’s son Rep. Randolph Ting was quoted as describing the DOJ panel’s findings, especially the recommendation to administratively charge his father, as politically motivated, which the team denied.

“Our findings are impartial. We have given all the concerned parties the opportunity to be heard,” said regional state prosecutor Ronel Nicolas, head of the fact-finding team.

In its 20-page report, the panel recommended the filing of administrative cases against Ting for command responsibility, and four other city officials – Ireneo Taguibao, business permit licensing officer; Emilio Matanguihan, city engineer; Ruben Flores, electrical inspector; and Leonida Badajos, records officer – for their failure to close the shops at the five-story pension house’s first floor despite the absence of any license.

Administrative charges were also recommended against former city fire marshal Superintendent Neil Caraguian and former arson prober Senior Fire Officer Paulino Camacam for neglect of duty.

Criminal charges were recommended against Pepito Fondevilla, 60, and wife Araceli, owners of the ill-fated hotel, for negligence and imprudence. The couple lost their two children, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in the five-hour blaze.

The panel also recommended administrative charges against the University of La Salette for negligence when it billeted their graduates at the pension house without allegedly ensuring its safety standards.

Nicolas said the victims’ parents may use their findings as basis for a separate case against the school.