Kentex to pay P8K salary to survivors, families of Valenzuela factory fire victims

The company that owns the gutted slipper factory and warehouse in Valenzuela City is set to give P8,000 to the families of the victims and survivors of the fire that killed 72 last Wednesday.

 

A report on GMA News TV's "Balitanghali" on Saturday afternoon quoted Atty. Renato Paraiso, lawyer of Kentex Manufacturing Corporation, as saying the amount is the salary due the workers for the first half of the month.

 

The report added that the amount is higher than the P5,500 initially reported.

 

This is on top of the footwear company's promise of financial assistance to the survivors and to amilies of the 72 people killed in the incident, it added.

 

However, the report quoted Valenzuela City Mayor Rex Gatchalian said the amount is still not enough, and he is disappointed with how the company is facing its liabilities.

 

An earlier report on Agence France-Presse quoted Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz as saying the deaths of 72 people in the fire exposed abusive conditions for millions of poor and desperate workers across the nation.

 

"The deaths should serve as a wake-up call for businessmen to stop these abuses... they should give their employees dignity," Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz told AFP.

 

Authorities have blamed barred windows on the second floor that trapped many of the workers, leading to their deaths.

 

Paraiso, for his part, said that the steel bars on the windows were intended to prevent theft.

 

The warehouse was hit by a fire on Wednesday that caused the deaths of at least 72 of its workers. — Amanda Fernandez with a report from Elizabeth Marcelo/JDS, GMA News