UNLESS it can comply with the requirements, the developer of a condominium complex on Salvador St., Barangay Labangon, Cebu City may have to stop civil work following a stoppage order by the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) 7 after an accident that killed one worker last Wednesday.
The Office of the Building Official (OBO) also served yesterday the order of suspension of illegal construction against the Casa Mira Towers project of Cebu Landmasters Inc. (CLI).
The Dole 7 issued a cease-and-desist order (CDO) against the development after it found several violations during a site inspection yesterday.
Exequiel Sarcauga, Dole 7 director, said that during the inspection, they found that there was no safety engineer on-duty and there were no construction safety and health program and certificate from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) for their backhoe operator.
After the issuance of the CDO, Dole will also call the contractor and developer of the project to a mandatory conference within the week.
JE Abraham Lee Construction & Development Inc. is the contractor of the project.
Sarcauga said they will check on why the contractor and developer started the project even without securing first the required permits.
The CLI earlier released a statement, saying there was no need to secure a building permit yet for its Casa Mira Towers project in Barangay Labangon since it hasn’t started constructing the condominium building.
Engr. Josefa Ylanan, chief of the OBO, said the incident report from the engineers she assigned to inspect the site was already submitted yesterday.
City Engineers Jeralyn Mae Lucero, Nilo Igot and Neil Ian Rubia, in the report they submitted, confirmed that a portion of the excavation collapsed due to the failure of the sheet pile wall, which was used as soil protection.
Although a demolition permit was issued to the developer, the three engineers said no building and excavation permit applications were submitted to their office.
Pending
CLI president for legal, documentation and permits Larri-Nil Veloso earlier said that the developer had applied for a building permit, but its status is still pending.
It was the three city engineers who recommended in their report to suspend construction activities and prioritize the soil protection works under their supervision to prevent any untoward incident.
The contractor is also required to submit the proposed methodology and geotechnical exploration test to evaluate the development.
Work on the soil protection must also be supervised by an accredited safety engineer and personal protective equipment must be observed in the construction premises.
Unsafe
After the accident, only a few workers were seen milling around in the vicinity.
A personnel from a nearby high school who asked not to be named said they can feel the vibrations from the heavy machinery in the site before it was suspended.
Resident Paul Abellaneda, 62, said they were afraid the wall would collapse again.
“Ang yuta kay humok. Swerte gani kay init gahapon, kung nag-uwan pa to daghang mahitabo (The soil is soft. It was by luck that it was a hot day because if it was rainy, many things would have happened),” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
Abellaneda pointed to an electric wire and said that before the accident, it was hanging low.
Now, it is stretched high because the electric post inside the wall is not standing straight as it originally would, he said.
Some portions of the temporary wall made of steel sheets, which have been forced open by onlookers, have been patched.