A tropical storm swept through the southern Philippines from Friday to Sunday, killing 240 people, a fire in a shopping mall in the south killed at least 36 people and a terrible accident north of Manila killed 20 others.
After a fire at the commercial center in Davao, which killed at least 37 people, Justice Minister Vitaliano Aguirre announced Monday that he had opened an investigation to “hold officials responsible” for the tragedy.
Twenty people from a family, including six children, were killed and 26 others injured when two buses collided in Agu, 200 kilometers (300 miles) north of Manila, as they were going to attend Christmas mass at the ancient Manawg church, police said.
The driver of the truck, which had been taken by the disaster-stricken family, took a truck in front of him and crashed into a truck on the other side.
In the south of the country, the storm struck the southern island of Mindanao, which is usually free from about 20 tropical storms that sweep the Philippine archipelago each year.
Aid officials confirmed on Monday that the storm toll had risen to 240. Most of those killed were in Mindanao, Zamboanga Peninsula in the west and Lanao del Sood in the center.
Rescuers are still searching for 107 missing in Mindanao, 20 million people.
The storm caused the displacement of 52,000 people who spent Christmas in shelters after they lost everything.
The storm fell on Sunday morning, heading for the South China Sea, and the weather forecast was expected to arrive on Monday night.
Tropical storms are rare in Mindanao but have devastating damage. At the end of 2012, Hurricane Bufa left 1900 people dead and missing.
In 2013, Hurricane Hayan hit the center of the archipelago with winds of more than 315 kilometers per hour, creating a tsunami-like tsunami that destroyed everything in its path, leaving more than 7,500 dead and missing and destroying more than four million homes.
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The tragic weekend ended with the fire of the commercial center in Davao on the southern island of Mindanao. Rescuers found the bodies of some 36 people on Monday.
“I counted them myself before giving information to the governor of the city,” the head of the fire protection office in Davao, Wilberto Quan Teo, told the families of the victims.
“As an officer in charge of this operation on the ground, I apologize for not being able to save them,” said the official, who joined the search inside the burning building by midday.
The fire broke out Saturday morning at the New City shopping mall, which is located on the fourth floor of a non-stop communications center owned by the US multinational market research firm, SSI.
The company announced on its website Sunday evening that 37 of its 500 employees on the last floor “lost” in the fire.
Firefighters took control of the fire on Sunday morning. But firefighters said they had not yet been able to reach the wing where most of the missing people were stuck in the building.
Authorities in the Philippines opened a criminal investigation on Monday with allegations that there were no exit or closure of the building, which was denied by the mall administration.
The testimony of those who managed to get out (from the mall) confirms that they did so through the fire exit, “Theia Bada, a public relations officer at the mall, told AFP in a text message.
“Punishing officials for not repeating this tragedy,” Justice Minister Vitaliano Aguirre pledged in a statement.
Some of the relatives of missing people have criticized the rescue efforts, saying they have moved slowly.
The worst fire in modern Philippine history dates back to 1996, when a huge fire broke out at nightclub in Manila, killing 162 people.