by Our Foreign Desk

FILIPINO President Benigno Aquino announced yesterday that criminal charges would be filed over last month’s fatal factory fire.

He also criticised government agencies for failing to enforce safety regulations and ordered a mass inspection of some 300,000 factories in and around the capital Manila.

“We do not want a repeat of this tragedy and have to pin down through the filing of charges all those who conspired for this tragedy to happen,” he said.

Mr Aquino told a news conference that local officials and fire bureau personnel who ignored the flip-flop factory’s failure to meet safety requirements would be among those charged.

Last month’s horrific fire at the Kentex Manufacturing Corporation in Valenzuela city, a northern Manila suburb, killed 72 people.

The president said that an investigation had shown that the company failed to install an automatic sprinkler system and a protected fire exit inside the building.

It had also regularly failed to obtain the required fire safety inspection certificate since it began operating in 1996, except once in 2012 — and that certificate was of questionable validity.

Mr Aquino urged the public, especially factory workers, to report any safety risks to authorities, adding that the fire showed that each agency of government had failed to carry out its duties.

Congress will determine the charges to be filed, but among them are reckless imprudence resulting in homicide, falsification of public documents and dereliction of duty.