THE Office of the Building Official (OBO) in Bacolod City is conducting an investigation on the portion of Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) Capitol Central mall construction site that collapsed and killed two workers last Saturday.
Engineer Isidro Sun Jr., head of OBO, said Tuesday, November 14, he inspected the site from the ground floor to sixth floor, but he failed to get more information on why the collapse happened.
He said he talked with the engineer of ALI, but he also failed to provide more details since he was not around during the incident.
Sun had advised the management of ALI to stop the construction to avoid untoward incidents.
Police identified the fatalities as Doddy Boy Mallorca, 30, of Manapla town, and Hercalo Abraham, 36, of Bacolod City.
Chief Inspector Benedicto Villarias Jr., head of Police Station 2, had earlier said both victims were pouring cement on the sixth floor of the mixed-use building when the incident happened at 1:45 a.m.
Sun said he required the ALI contractors to submit the logbook from November 4 to 5 to determine the activities inside the construction site.
“We will find out why it collapsed because there might be something that caused the incident," he said.
Sun noted that ALI is a compliant company in terms of building permit and they are using standard materials.
The Department of Labor and Employment (Dole)-Western Visayas had earlier issued a work stoppage order (WSO) to project contractors Makati Development Corporation (MDC) Build Plus and Kuntel Construction.
Sun said he is also preparing to issue a work stoppage order while the investigation is on-going.
Mary Agnes Capigon, head of Dole-Negros Field Office, said Tuesday that MDC Build Plus has appealed for the lifting of the WSO issued by Dole-Western Visayas Director Johnson Cañete on November 13.
“There is a violation because two workers died so we have to evaluate everything first and submit a report to the regional director who will decide on the lifting of the WSO,” she said.
Capigon said added that they have already identified the deficiencies based on the WSO.
“While they have the personal protective equipment, I think based on the assessment of our inspectors the victims failed to hook the full body harness. There was power interruption prior to the incident that’s why the workers kept coming up and down and forgot to hook the harness. Weak scaffolds were also found by the inspectors that may have caused the collapse,” Capigon added.