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Sara Duterte clarifies 'endorsement,' won't be part of NCCC Mall fire probe
By TRISHA MACAS,GMA NewsDavao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio on Thursday said she would not be part of any team that would investigate the New City Commercial Center Mall fire that killed 38 people last week.
Duterte clarified this to GMA News Online while denying that she was an endorser of NCCC Mall. She said she only has a contract with Choice Mart, which is the smaller version of the NCCC Supermarket.
“I am not part of the investigation team Ma’am… And I am not NCCC mall endorser, I have a contract with choice mart, another company of NCCC supermarket… I never said I was part of the investigation team,” she said in a text message to GMA News Online.
“But I told them Building Admin who went through building plans for permits and 911 who participated in the response units should be part of the team to answer questions, but if they refuse then its ok,” she added.
In a separate statement, Sara said that the critics were only trying to malign her.
“Nobody can question how I did my work as Mayor in helping the family of the victims, the BFP, the NCCC, and SSI officials. The way my staff and CSSDO handled everything during the evening of Dec 23 until today prevented chaos and hysteria among the victims and Dabawenyos in general,” she said.
“Siguro isa ito sa mga pagkakataon na maghahanap talaga ng butas ang mga tao para lang meron masabi na may masama akong ginagawa,” she added.
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According to NCCC’s website, Sara was tapped the “new face of Choice Mart by NCCC” in September 2015.
Columnist Tonyo Cruz tweeted about the subject on Wednesday.
“My impartiality has been questioned and there have been suggestions that I should inhibit myself from the investigation of the NCCC mall fire because of an endorsement contract,” Duterte said in her statement.
“In any event, I never said I am investigating the fire incident and I welcome any investigation on how I did my work in this particular matter,” she added. —JST, GMA News