Painful reminders of a fire

To feminists, the report on the fire that hit a garments store in Butuan resonated beyond the naturally human curiosity and sympathy for the victims, at least 18 of them, most of them women.

The news story turned symbolic, for it recalled the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York, an event with far-reaching repercussions in both the women’s movement and the labor movement. A total of 146 garment workers died when fire broke out on March 25, 1911, as the work day was about to end. Because the owners of the factory had locked the gates and doors to stairwells and exits, allegedly to prevent pilfering, many of the women died due to smoke inhalation. Many others leaped to their deaths. Many of the victims were Jewish and Italian migrant women, with the youngest victims being two 14-year-old girls.

On the first anniversary of the tragedy, women and men workers marched through the streets of New York, an event that eventually became observed worldwide as International Women’s Day. The fire also led to improved factory safety standards and to the growth of the women’s labor movement, especially of sweatshop workers.

And that was precisely what the victims in the Butuan fire were: sweatshop workers and sales ladies who were allowed to sleep in the third floor of the building, a “common practice” among employers, we are told.

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Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said the building was inspected just last March 22, with the building’s owner required to conduct a fire drill before a Fire Safety Insurance Certificate was issued.

This may well have been the case, but what do we make of a survivor’s account that she relied on “memory of the location of the fire exit” to lead two coworkers down from the third floor and out of the burning building? It was too late, though, for the rest of their coworkers at the Novo Jeans and Shirts store, who either failed to wake up or were overwhelmed by smoke. Heart-tugging, indeed, was the photo showing row upon row of body bags amid the smoldering ruins. One can only imagine the anguish and horror of the relatives of many of the victims who rushed to Butuan, “in shock and tears.”

As a sidebar to the story in this paper points out: “In recent years, fires have ripped through factories and commercial buildings in the Philippines, claiming the lives of stay-in workers.”

One reason may be that factories and office buildings are not originally designed as dwellings, where large numbers of people spend the night. Fire safety measures may not be as stringent, or fire protection surveillance may even be turned off.

Another factor may be the need for security against pilferage, theft or break-ins versus the need for proper fire exits and ample escape routes for the live-in workers. Reports have it that a steel door in the building in Butuan was locked from the outside, blocking the way of any workers who wanted to escape.

Tragic though the Butuan fire may be, and as tragic as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was, the even more tragic fact is that many more such fiery tragedies are bound to take place unless we take serious steps to address fire safety issues and adopt protective measures for workers—many of them young women—who risk their lives to earn money for their families.

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There may be many reasons we are not aware of that may explain the passage through the House ways and means committee of HB 3727, the so-called “sin tax” bill that would restructure the excise taxes on alcohol and tobacco products.

News reports say the decision of the leadership of the Nationalist People’s Coalition to support the measure was key to its passage for floor deliberations. Others say it was the willingness of the authors and supporters of the measure to compromise on certain key provisions. I, for one, know that the measure was subjected to intense lobbying by different civic groups, from doctors and the health community to academics and economic researchers.

One of the biggest reasons, though, has to be the strong backing given to “sin taxes” by P-Noy and his supporters in and out of the House. This may be why opposition legislators and members of the “Northern Bloc,” representing constituents in Northern Luzon, among them tobacco farmers, processors and manufacturers, now accuse pro-administration House leaders of “railroading” the measure through the committee.

But they should be reminded that while there is a strong outcry for the passage of the sin tax bill, there is still an equally vigorous and well-funded lobby against it. Three cheers, then, for health and wellness, for fairness and justice (yes, even for tobacco farmers), and for rationalizing the taxation system to truly benefit the greater number of Filipinos.

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In this day and age when anyone and everyone with a late-model cell phone can become a broadcaster, celebrities should be aware that they better watch how they behave in public if they don’t want to be the next YouTube sensation.

Which is why it’s much too late for husband-and-wife Raymart Santiago and Claudine Barretto to now cry “violation of privacy” in their scuffle with media man (and senior citizen) Ramon Tulfo. In the first place, no one has the right to demand that another person turn over his/her cell phone—even if that person was recording a “personal” event, and even if the documentarist is not a Tulfo or even a journalist.

Technology has put the power of the media in the hands of every other Juan, Juana or Ramon, and all that public figures can do is to make sure that they keep their tempers in check, don’t go assaulting people recording them, and don’t wear pink halter tops and white shorts when ganging up on someone in the airport.