THE Mandaue City Government has ordered the contractors of a warehouse building in Barangay Maguikay to suspend their activities after the building collapsed on Wednesday morning, June 22, 2022.
Engineer Crystal Comon, acting head of Mandaue City’s Office of the Building Official (OBO), told reporters that the suspension order they issued to the contractors started on Friday, June 24.
Aside from suspending their construction activities in the area, Comon also recommended to the contractors to demolish and reconstruct the damaged parts or if possible, the entire building, and follow the safety standards to prevent a repeat of what happened.
The warehouse building, which is situated on V. Albaño Street, Sitio Sugar Valley in Barangay Maguikay, collapsed on Wednesday morning.
The warehouse building collapsed after a bout of heavy rain in the area.
Comon urged the contractors to immediately conduct the demolition as some portions of the road adjacent to the construction site remains unpassable because of the debris from the collapsed structure.
Heavy rains to blame
Based on their investigation, Comon found the heavy rains that occurred at the time of the incident and the contractors’ faulty construction methods to blame for the building’s collapse.
Comon and OBO personnel who examined the area on Wednesday found that some of the building’s construction procedures failed to adhere to standard processes as stated in the National Structural Code of the Philippines.
She also point out that the building was located in a low elevated area where water could easily accumulate, causing the soil around the structure to lose its compactivity.
She discounted allegations that substandard materials were used to construct the building.
Comon added that the contractors were able to secure a construction permit from the city, which was issued to them in July last year.
Collapsed inward
Comon said luckily for the construction workers, the building collapsed in an inward direction.
“If it had collapsed in an outward direction, there could have been casualties among the construction workers,” Comon said.
Comon said they were unable to identify the engineers and the contractor of the building as they never showed up during the site inspection.
She, however, said the building owner had already coordinated with them and expressed his willingness to demolish the structure. (HIC, GDC)