A wall collapsed at the construction site of Casa Mira Towers in Labangon, Cebu City. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
CEBU CITY–A 20-year-old worker was killed after a concrete wall and steel piles fell on him while working at a construction site along Salvador Extension in Barangay Labangon, Cebu City, Wednesday morning.
John Eric Llera was welding a large steel beam along the perimeter of an excavation when the wall collapsed and crushed him to death around 10:30 a.m., said PO3 Cristobal Geronimo, investigator of the Cebu City Police Office’s homicide division.
Llera, a native of Barangay Canlumampao, Toledo City, west Cebu, was rushed by rescuers to the Cebu City Medical Center but he didn’t make it alive, said Nagiel Banacia, head of the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CCDRRMO).
Police investigators and city officials were denied entry to the construction site until Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella arrived past 1 p.m. and pleaded through a megaphone outside the entrance gate to allow him and other officials to enter.
After 10 minutes, Labella, along with the police investigators and officers of the Office of the Building Official (OBO), was allowed entry by the construction site’s security guard.
The vice mayor halted all operations at the construction site pending an investigation to be conducted by OBO officials, the Department of Labor and Employment, and the police.
J.E. Abraham Lee Construction and Development is undertaking the construction of Casa Mira Towers owned by AB Soberano International Corp. and Cebu Landmasters Inc.
The economic residential condominium project is contained in an area of 3,681 square meters and aims the construction of two towers.