ELEVEN construction workers were exchanging jokes while working overtime when tragedy struck yesterday.
Four workers died on the spot when a firewall collapsed along F. Llamas St. in Barangay Tisa, Cebu City. It fell on the 11 workers who stayed on the scaffolding, bringing them all to the ground at 1 a.m.
Seven others were brought to Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC), but one of them died within hours.
Weak concreting works and a possible deviation from the original building plan for the three-storey Gaisano Capital building were initially blamed for the collapse.
Cebu City Hall’s inspectors also observed the lack of safety measures in the construction site, which they said would help explain the deaths and extent of the other workers’ injuries.
The Office of the Building Official (OBO) last inspected the construction site last March 25, but its engineers and architects did not notice anything irregular or dangerous there.
Representatives of CYC Construction said they are saddened by the “unfortunate accident” and agreed to fully cooperate in the investigation.
Construction lead man Jezrel Villena, 22, said he was watching the workers from the ground when he saw the firewall fall. He said the beam that supported the firewall
also gave way and hit the main line of an electric post, causing a brownout in some areas of the barangay.
“Nagtiaw-tiaw pa sila. Sige pa to sila og pangatawa unya mikalit ra og bigay ang firewall (They were telling jokes and laughing, when the firewall collapsed without warning),” said Villena.
Killed on the spot were Deony N. Delan, 30; his brother Christian, 27; Teodulfo Detumal, 35, and Lyndon Melendrez, 18. All four were residents of Carmen town, Cebu.
Their bodies were brought to St. Francis Funeral Homes.
The mason Argie Ceniza, 27, of Dawis, Carmen, Cebu died while undergoing treatment at the city hospital.
Six others survived but were brought to the CCMC for lacerations and bruises: Jerome P. Siose, 19; Ricardo Rixon M. Villegas, 27; Joy C. Manseras, 36; Arnel A. Pacible, 23; Roel Pasaje, 26; and Noel G. Lucero, 23. All come from Carmen town.
The workers are employees of CYC Construction, which was hired to construct the Gaisano Capital branch in Barangay Tisa.
Pacible, in an interview at the hospital, said he noticed that the mixed cement he was trying to place on the firewall for finishing touches would not stick.
He asked his fellow workers noticed the same thing.
When the wall collapsed, he said, most of them clung to the scaffolding, while one or two held on to an electric post nearby.
Overtime
Pacible said they have been working overtime since 7 p.m. last Tuesday, putting finishing touches on the firewall. They were supposed to wind up the job at 3 a.m.
Pacible said he asked Detumal, one of those who later died, if the firewall was safe because it appeared to be slanted apart from being too high.
Detumal told him it was fine.
Villena said they started constructing the building in October 2009. It was expected to be done by April 30.
Romulo Guarin of the Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Council said the last person they retrieved from the rubble was Melendrez.
He said the workers fell about 30 feet.
Dave Delan, the younger brother of two workers who died, was saved after the trowel he was holding fell to the ground.
Dave went down to get it, then decided to relieve himself. It was during this time that the wall collapsed.
Families
SPO1 Jay Yballe, chief investigator of the Homicide Section, said they will wait for the decision of the workers’ families whether to pursue charges against CYC owner Charles Yu Chiu.
The Homicide Section invited Chiu, Villena, Dave Delan and the construction engineer to report to the police to shed light on the accident.
At City Hall, Mayor Tomas Osmeña ordered the immediate halt of construction work on the building, except for necessary steps to prevent further damage and remove debris.
Shortly before 8 last night, a fire broke out on the second floor of the building but was quickly put out.
The Bureau of Fire Protection said some workers were clearing the area and sparks from their welding rods fell on some insulation materials, which caught fire.
The damage was negligible, said SFO1 Nilo Daculan, fire investigator, quoting a security guard.
Safety gear
In a phone interview last night, the mayor declined to disclose the initial report given to him by Engineer Pericles Dakay of Dakay Construction and Development Corp. He will instead wait for the official report of all the engineers he asked to look into the matter.
During their search and rescue operation past 1 a.m. Yesterday, personnel from the Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Council (CCDCC) observed that construction workers did not have protective gear such as hard hats, safety lines that will support them when hanging from the walls, and other safety devices.
There was also no safety engineer present at the site when the accident happened.
City Councilor Gerardo Carillo told reporters that if the workers had protective gear, their deaths could have been prevented.
“Most of them died due to hemorrhage,” he said.
Carillo met with representatives of CYC Construction and Gaisano Capital and officials from the CCDCC, OBO and the Bureau of Fire Protection yesterday afternoon and instructed them to conduct a formal investigation.
Carillo and OBO Chief Josefa Ylanan said a separate review will be conducted to find out if there was criminal negligence on the part of CYC Construction.
Materials
The building permit was issued to Edmund Gaisano of First Pacific Fortune Commercial Corp., the owner of Gaisano Capital.
“The initial report we got based on the inspection is that there was something wrong with curing of the cement. Perhaps the cement needed to be cured much longer…
There was nothing wrong with the beams and other materials used; it’s only the cement. Perhaps there were shortcuts sa pagtrabaho (in the work),” said Carillo, action officer of the CCDCC.
Ylanan confirmed the councilor’s statements, but said the findings were based only on the initial inspection and still have to be verified.
She said that the contractor appears to have deviated from the building plans approved by her office, “because the firewall seems to be much higher than what we
approved.”
“We will also refer this to the City Attorney’s Office because generally speaking, there is a probability of civil and criminal liabilities due to the deaths and damages,” Ylanan told reporters.
Ylanan said that her staff reviewed the building plans submitted by the contractor to her office. Based on the plans, the firewall was only supposed to be for a three-level structure.
Help
Niceto Caldoza, the project site engineer, said he also did not see any defect in the construction of the building, which is already 70 percent completed.
The target date of completion is April 30.
He admitted that work at the site is being done 24 hours to beat the deadline by month’s end.
Lawyer Ronnie Gocuan, legal counsel for CYC Construction, said they still do not know what caused the collapse.
He assured Carillo they have taken care of all the hospital expenses of the six who were injured, and that the P100,000 financial and burial assistance was supposed to be given yesterday to the families of the five workers who died.
“It was an unfortunate accident and the contractor feels very sad with what happened. No one wanted it to happen, especially the loss of lives,” Gocuan said.
Carillo told reporters that resumption of work will depend on the results of the structural investigation, which the contractor said they will finish as soon as possible.