The resolution inviting the dormitory owners was approved during the council’s regular session last Tuesday.

District 2 Councilor Edward Tan sponsored the passage of the resolution which also called for the strict implementation of the Building Code.

This developed after the City Administrator’s Office found out that several dormitories in the city have major deficiencies and have insufficient fire-fighting facilities.

The resolution was approved by the City Council in the wake of a fire that gutted down a boardinghouse on P. Campa St., Sampaloc, leaving eight students dead last January.

Tan urged the Business Promotions and Development Office (BPDO) not to be complacent in the issuance of dormitory permits to applicants, most of whom simply convert their residences to boardinghouses and dormitories.

Inspectors from the Manila City Administrator’s Office have yet to finish a second wave of crackdown against erring establishments believed to be residential houses but operating as boardinghouses.

Louie Manimtim, head of the composite team from the Administrator’s Office, said they have not yet finished inspecting some 700 residential homes accepting paying boarders since the closure of 12 firetrap dormitories.

City Hall inspectors found out that some unregistered boardinghouses accept lodgers beyond the required maximum number of occupants inside a room. Moreover, most of the boardinghouses are dilapidated and poorly constructed.

Meanwhile, Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane said he would meet with Manila Mayor Lito Atienza as soon as possible in connection with the recommendation of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for the demolition of Manuel Roxas High School in Paco and another four-storey building at the Araullo High School in Ermita.

Ebdane stood pat on the findings of the DPWH Task Force on Building Inspection that the two schools should be demolished due to structural damages caused by the July 1990 earthquake.

The DPWH said except for the two mentioned schools, all other public school buildings in Metro Manila have been deemed safe.

But despite the DPWH warning, Atienza allowed Manuel Roxas High School and Araullo High School to proceed with their classes last week. Atienza said the City Engineer’s Office had reevaluated the two schools and deemed them safe for use by the students despite the DPWH findings.