By Antonio Colina IV
DAVAO CITY – The demolition of the ill-fated four-story NCCC Mall Davao will start on May 19, nearly five months after last year’s inferno killed 37 call center agents and one mall personnel.
NCCC Mall Davao public relations manager Thea Padua said the demolition of the 14-year old mall came 88 days after the City Building Official approved the mall management’s application for demolition permit on Feb. 20.
The mall applied for demolition last Feb. 2 and paid the city a permit fee worth P187,854, she said. As of this writing, Padua has yet to respond to query regarding the target completion of the demolition but based on the permit, the company is given only 30 days to complete it from the starting date.
Earlier, Padua said the company plans to redevelop the mall which was gutted down Dec. 23 of last year. On Dec. 24, rescuers recovered one of the 38 missing victims inside the comfort room on the fourth floor where most of the trapped workers reportedly huddled shortly after the fire broke out at 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 23.
On Dec. 25, Christmas Day, BFP-11 director Senior Supt. Wilberto Rico Neil A. Kwan Tiu announced after a mass held outside the mall that rescue and retrieval operation workers recovered 36 “charred” bodies at the lobby of the SSI office on the fourth floor.