BY VICTOR REYES and ANGELA CELIS
THE Manila Central Post Office and its contents that were razed by a massive fire are insured with the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) for P604 million, the state pension fund said in a statement yesterday.
The GSIS also committed to assist in the restoration of the neoclassical, five-story, nearly 100-year-old landmark.
The chief of the Bureau of Fire Protection-National Capital Region (BFR-NCR) said the damage caused by the fire was initially estimated at P300 million but raised the estimate yesterday to P500 million.
“Our estimate is P300 to 500 million,” BFP-NCR director Chief Supt. Nahum Tarroza said in a radio interview. “But this could rise due to expensive antique materials (that were also damaged).
“The main building was really totally burned,” Tarroza added.
The fire broke out in the basement of the building at around 11:41 p.m. last Sunday and was put under control at 7:22 a.m. Monday.
Firefighters declared a “fire out” at around 6:33 a.m. yesterday.
The BFP-NCR said the number of people injured in the fire rose yesterday to 18, 16 of them firefighters.
Tarroza said investigators have begun interviewing witnesses, including a caretaker who first saw the fire, to determine what caused the blaze.
He said the caretaker, who was not identified, was sleeping in the maintenance section at that time when he heard the sound of a falling object in the basement. He said a security guard also heard the sound.
“He (caretaker) immediately went to check it and saw smoke,” said Tarroza. “Then they (caretaker and security guard) called fighters.”
He said responding firefighters had difficulty in putting out the fire because the blaze was in a “confined space.”
Tarroza said: “So far, we only know where it started. As to the real cause, we cannot speculate.”
He said the building has no fire hose and sprinkler system.
Tarroza said the BFP-NCR will be inspecting similar cultural heritage structures to ensure they are complying with the fire code.
“We are going to intensify our inspection and we hope government facilities will comply,” said Tarroza.
INSURANCE CLAIM
“To facilitate the insurance claims, we immediately dispatched our adjusters to the fire scene today even though no fire-out has been declared yet. We also deployed drones to completely evaluate the affected structures. We are very much aware of the historical significance of the building and we would like to assist in its rebuilding efforts in every possible way,” GSIS president and general manager Wick Veloso said.
The pension fund chief added that GSIS will offer its warehouse in Pasig to serve as Philpost’s temporary workplace.
“Philpost needs a transitory workplace to allow it to seamlessly maintain its vital services while its restoration is going on,” Veloso said.
“We are also willing to extend a loan to Philpost for the reconstruction of the building. The building has been declared an Important Cultural Property by the National Museum of the Philippines and its loss will have a huge impact on our rich cultural heritage. We need to bring it back to its original splendor,” Veloso added.
The pension fund said that Philpost will inform GSIS immediately once a clearance is issued by the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) to enable GSIS to schedule a full-blown site inspection to determine the extent of damage sustained by the insured properties.
According to Philpost, it would be impossible to gain entry into the building because it is still unsafe, tightly secured and cordoned off by the responding BFP team.
The Philpost building was designed by Juan Arellano and Tomas Mapua in the neoclassical style and was completed in 1926.
It was the main mail-sorting and distribution hub in the Philippines and was the central office for the Philippine Postal Corp. The building was also a popular tourist destination, known for its grand architecture and its collection of stamps.
