Management to man hit by falling tiles from mall’s post: We’ll shoulder your medical expenses

After a 24-year-old man was hurt from one of the tiles which peeled off the wall and fell off the post outside a shopping mall building along Osmena Boulevard, Cebu City, mall management assured the family of the victim of shouldering the hospital expenses and for the victim’s medication.

Audy Antiquina, liaison officer of Unitop mall, said yesterday they would shoulder the medical expenses of the victim, John Salito Cantalao, who was injured after the tiles fell from the estimated 20-foot post outside the Unitop Shopping Mall on Sunday afternoon.

Cantalao of Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City, was rushed to the hospital after he was hit by the tiles.

He told Cebu Daily News in an interview that he was only passing through the mall when the incident happened.

“Nilabang ra man mi dinhing dapita, unya nakit-an nako nga ang tiles natagak mao nga dali nako nga gitukmod akong mama ug ako’y naigo dinhi sa akong abaga (We were just crossing the street and passing along the sidewalk in front of the mall when I saw the tiles falling and I pushed my mother so that she would not be hit by the tiles. Some of the tiles fell on my shoulder),” he said.

He said some of the tiles hit his mother but she only suffered some bruises.

Personnel from the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office brought Cantalao to the hospital after he complained of pain on his right shoulder.

Two other people were also hit by falling tiles but they only suffered bruises and were only given first-aid treatment in the accident area.

Unitop’s Antiquina said that they believed the tiles peeled off the wall of the post because of the two recent earthquakes that hit Cebu province and Leyte.

She said that they planned to retrofit the post of their building and remove the tiles of the post to prevent anymore accidents.