“Some people must be held responsible for the senseless loss of lives,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd said in a statement on Monday. Earlier on Monday, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre announced the inquiry as the government raised the toll to one dead and 38 missing. “By punishing those responsible, we can set an example to others so that, hopefully, there will be no repetition of those tragedies,” Aguirre said in a statement. The country biggest group of unions, the Associated Labor Unions (ALU), blamed the government for the Kentex and HTI fires. According to ALU, such incidents could have been avoided had the government learned and applied the lessons from the past.

Source: Manila Times December 25, 2017 16:18 UTC