Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said on Friday that the city government has withdrawn its representatives in the interagency task force which will look into the NCCC Mall fire in Davao City that killed 37 call center workers and one missing mall employee inside the four-story building.
In a press briefingp, the mayor said she arrived at that decision after her “intergrity and impartiality” was questioned for being an endorser of Choice Mart, a subsidiary of the NCCC Supermarket.
The city government would have sent officials from the city engineer’s office as well as the Central 911 to give information to the task force investigating the incident.
“My impartiality has been questioned and there have been suggestions that I should inhibit myself from the investigation of the NCCC mall fire because of an endorsement contract,” Duterte-Carpio said.
The mayor, however, said she could not get herself involve as she was not included in the investigation team.
“For the record, I am not part of the investigation team,” she said, adding that she never presented herself to be part of the inquiry.
“Under normal circumstances, a City Mayor does not sign fire investigation reports of the BFP,” she added, mentioning the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP).
She also stressed that updates will be provided by the the interagency task force, consisted of the BFP, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Department of Justice (DOJ), and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 11.
The mayor also broke her silence on the matter that she was an endorser for NCCC Mall.
“I am not an endorser of the NCCC mall, but I have a commitment with Choice Mart, which is another company of NCCC supermarket,” she said.
Duterte-Carpio also answered criticisms, most of them were on social media, regarding how she addressed the issue.
“Nobody can question how I did my work as Mayor in helping the family of the victims, the BFP, the NCCC, and SSI officials. The way my staff and CSSDO (City Social and Services Development Office) handled everything during the evening of December 23 until today prevented chaos and hysteria among the victims and Dabawenyos in general,” she explained.
Sara lamented that some people have used the incident to blame her. She said she welcomes any investigation on how did she respond on this particular matter.