Firestarter...

It is quite mysterious as to what could have caused the fire that razed in the Department of Budget and Management building just this morning. Firefighter figured that the conflagration started in the building's Server Office. For one, the Server office of the DBM is where all the electronic files are centralized. As far as I know, this serves as the central hard disk drive of all employees of DBM. In short, all electronic files stored in this server are gone. Lost... Could no longer be retrieved. hmmmm... I just smelled something fishier than my breakfast tuyo.

I am not judging this early as to what might have been the cause of the fire. It was reported though that Server office was empty when the fire broke out. What could have transpired in that room? Was it just a mere case of overheat or electrical failure? In my former office, I remember that we also store the main server in a certain floor of our building. In this floor, it is never empty because the servers require high maintenance and security. I just wonder what happened to the people on duty to guard or maintain the servers. Or is it really not a practice for the DBM to designate a person to at least guard the premises considering the servers require high maintenance? I would just give it a big sigh...

What's quite disturbing is that the fire broke out only several days after the "Fertilizer Scam" drew the media's attention. And only a few days after Former DBM Secretary Emilia Boncodin released her testimony regarding the fund transfers/ conversions of the administration to allegedly finance the highly scandalous 2004 elections. It just makes people think... Well, at least that is what the "thinking public" thinks. Remember that I speak of this objectively and on the basis of mere facts and opinion of other people.

I also remember that several years ago, a fire also broke out in the Bureau of Internal Revenue building, during the time of BIR Commissioner Liwayway Vinzons-Chato. At that time, the fire occurred in the records office of the BIR, destroying all valuable tax records of big-time tax evaders. It was also coincidental that this time was also the height of the tax evasion case against the tobacco magnate Lucio Tan. The fire destroyed evidences that Tan was evading billions of pesos of taxes. People said the unpaid taxes were so big, that if only Tan paid them, we could be out of the debt problem. Thanks to the fire, evidences that would pin him down turned to dust. Luckily, Chato kept some of the files, thus the case is stille being heard at a Marikina City Trial Court.

No one really knows if the fire was intentional or a mere accident. For now, we can only wait and see what comes up in the investigation. I only hope that I and some people I know are wrong in our gut feelings about this fire... hay... Bad news again and again... Kawawa naman si Juan de la Cruz.

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As I am writing this, I have read from Inq7.net that the fire cause only minor damage to the system. DBM officials also said that not all data were lost since there were back-up files. Are there also back-up files for the files that SEc. Boncodin mentioned? I still smell the fish... Must be my breath due to the Tuyo breakfast... Tsk tsk tsk...