A minor fire broke out on the 6th floor of Palacio del Gobernador in Intramuros, Manila on Monday, July 31.
In a statement, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) said the 6th floor, which is occupied by the Bureau of Treasury, caught fire at 12:32 PM and was delcared fire out by 12:38 PM.
The poll body noted that none of its operations were affected. However, COMELEC chairman George Garcia suspended work at all departments inside PDG in order to facilitate Bureau of Fire Protection's (BFP) investigation on the cause of the blaze.
COMELEC only occupies the eighth and seventh floors of the building, and parts of the fifth and ground floors.
Frontline services, such as issuing the Voter’s Registration Records and Certifications of the National Central File Division of the Election Records and Statistics Department located in Cabildo Street, would continue.
A similar fire broke out inside the PDG a year ago, affecting the building's seventh floor where Comelec’s Information Technology Department is housed.
