PHILIPPINES: PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT RAMOS ORDERS INQUIRY INTO MANILA DISCO FIRE TRAGEDY

Record ID: 443624

  • Title: PHILIPPINES: PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT RAMOS ORDERS INQUIRY INTO MANILA DISCO FIRE TRAGEDY
  • Date: 19th March 1996
  • Summary: MANILA, PHILIPPINES (MARCH 19, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: EXTERIOR OZONE DISCO AND SIGN; CROWD OUTSIDE AND RESCUE TRUCK (4 SHOTS) 0.14 2. GV: INTERIORS BURNED OUT DISCO, WORKERS AMONG CHARRED AND TWISTED WRECKAGE (3 SHOTS) 0.30 3. GV: BURNT-OUT RECORD DECKS (3 SHOTS) 0.43 4. GV: DISTRAUGHT PEOPLE OUTSIDE DISCO; LIST OF VICTIMS (4 SHOTS) 1.04 5. GV: BODY ON STRETCHER PUT INTO TRUCK; MORE GRIEVING RELATIVE (2 SHOTS) 1.17 6. GV/MV: SURVIVORS IN HOSPITAL EMERGENCY WARD; DISTRAUGHT RELATIVES (4 SHOTS) 1.30 7. GV/PAN: EXTERIOR DISCO; PRESIDENT FIDEL RAMOS COMES OUT OF DISCO/ DISCO (3 SHOTS) 2.00 8. GV: RAMOS TALKING TO POLICEMAN (ENGLISH) 2.22 9. GV/TILT: INTERIOR BURNT-OUT DISCO 2.30 TRANSCRIPT SEQUENCE 22: RAMOS: "YOU BETTER GET THE OWNERS HERE FOR INVESTIGATION. TELL THEM THEY ARE BEING INVITED FOR QUESTIONING BY THE PNP (PHILIPPINES NATIONAL POLICE) AND IF ANY OF THE REFUSE, I ORDER THEIR ARREST. BUT GIVE THEM A CHANCE TO RESPOND VOLUNTARILY." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 3rd April 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MANILA, THE PHILIPPINES
  • City:
  • Country: Phillippines
  • Reuters ID: LVADD28R3CGZ5R42D6HKXPOZTYH5
  • Story Text: INTRO: Philippines President Fidel Ramos ordered an inquiry into the 150 deaths at the Manila disco fire, after paying a visit to the site of the tragedy.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------- A grim-faced President Fidel Ramos visited the site of a disco fire in the Philippines capital Manila on Tuesday (March 19), just hours after an inferno claimed the lives of at least 150 people.

    He ordered an immediate investigation into the blaze at a fashionable disco, which fire officers say had no emergency exits, a glaring violation of the law.

    "You better get the owners here for investigation," Ramos told senior police officers accompanying him on a visit to the charred ruins of the Ozone nightclub.

    Fire officers say there were no emergency exits in the club in Manila's Quezon City district, where young revellers who set out to celebrate the end of the Philippine school year ended up being burned alive, suffocating or being trampled to death.

    Quezon City Mayor Mel Mathay told Ramos that 149 bodies had been recovered from the debris and another person had died in hospital. He said eight more people were in serious condition.

    Scores of others were injured.


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