Manila:

Quezon City officials involved in issuing building permits and safety compliance were meted prison sentences by the anti-graft court on Thursday for the disastrous 1996 Ozone disco fire that killed 162 people.

In a decision that took almost two decades to render, the Sandiganbayan sentenced seven former officials of the city engineer’s office as well as two private individuals to varying prison terms — the maximum being ten years — after they were found guilty of graft.

The Sandiganbayan sentenced City Engineer Alfredo Macapugay, former city engineer Renato Rivera junior, building inspector Edgardo Reyes, enforcement and inspection division chief Francisco Itliong, processing division chief Feliciano Sagana, engineer Petronillo De Llamas and building inspector Rolando Ma Maid to “suffer an indeterminate penalty of imprisonment of six years and one month as minimum to ten years as maximum with perpetual disqualification to hold public office.”

It was determined the officials had hastily approved building permits and safety compliance checks in exchange for financial consideration.

According to the decision by Associate Justice Ma. Theresa Dolores Gomez-Estoesta: “There can never be a slapdash approval of a building permit and certificate of occupancy. To shrink from this duty will certainly run at risk all safety standards contemplated by the National Building Code.”

Aside from the six Quezon City officials, Hermilo Ocampo, owner of the Ozone as well as Ramon Ng, treasurer were also sentenced to serve six to ten year prison sentences.

For the families of the Ozone fire victims, the court decision had been long delayed over a tragedy that was all but forgotten by the public. Some of the victims were brimming with promise on entering the workforce after their graduation from college.

The March 18, 1996 tragedy had dealt a big blow to Quezon City, a progressive urban centre comprising a big chunk of Metro Manila. One of the most popular clubs in the country during the 1990s, the site never reopened and had deteriorated into a decrepit spot in the otherwise commercial traffic-heavy Timog and Tomas Morato district.

Dozens of students celebrating their graduation were in the midst of merrymaking when the disco caught fire, trapping people inside the burning inferno as all the exits were sealed shut.