City Hall suspends building project

A worker waves from the seventh floor of the building project which gave way after its scaffoldings collapsed.
CDN Photo/Lito Tecson

Work on a building owned by a shipping firm in MJ Cuenco Avenue in Barangay Carreta, Cebu City had been suspended after two workers were injured at dawn yesterday.

The Office of the Building Official (OBO) served the notice of suspension on the building project of Lite Shipping Corp. hours after the incident.

Engineer Christopher Miranda of OBO said the building permit applied for by Lite Properties Corp. is still being processed in their office.

“Our office has not yet approved their building permit so supposedly there should be no activity in the site,” he said.
Engineer John Polestico, project manager for Lite Properties, admitted that while their building permit is being processed, they have no problems in their other requirements.

“We submitted them last November and they have corrections but the problems aren’t technical,” Polestico said.

Two workers were injured when the scaffoldings in the building’s second floor gave way while they were pouring concrete mix to the flooring.

Cebu City Councilor David Tumulak, who heads the city’s disaster risk reduction management, said the victims sustained minor injuries.

He said it was a structural failure since the scaffoldings installed to support the ongoing works at the seventh floor weren’t strong enough to support the weight of both workers and equipment.

OBO said once the contractor or the building owner complies with the remaining requirements, they can continue with the construction.

The regional Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE-7) said it will call for a mandatory conference today with company officials and the contractor as part of its standard procedure.

“The company representatives should be able to explain their side,” DOLE information officer Luchel Taniza said.

She said the conference will also present the observations made by two Labor Law Compliance Officers (LLCO) in yesterday’s incident.
Engineer Rustico Levi Custorio and Engineer Primo Guarin were sent to investigate and inspect the site.

“After presenting the observations, the companies will be asked when they can correct their deficiencies and this include management labor standards,” Taniza said.

Taniza said the company was told to fix some portions of the building temporarily yesterday to prevent any falling of debris in the site.