PINAMUNGAJAN
THE Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) has sent a team to the town of Pinamungajan, southwest of Cebu on Thursday, to investigate an accident which killed three construction workers.
“Gikuha pa ang detalye unsay hinungdan nganong naingon ato. Duna tay team nga nag risk assessment ato (We are still gathering details to know what really happened. We are sending a team to do a risk assessment),” said Jules Regner, PDRRMO information officer.
Regner said part of their intervention will be to train contractors on the importance of safety precautions and the quality of the equipment being used.
The three workers died when a portion of the land that they were excavating suddenly caved in last Wednesday.
The accident happened at a poultry farm in the mountain village of Sibago at around 2 P.M.; however, it took another four hours before a report on the incident reached authorities at around 6 P.M.
According to PO1 Absalon Cerna II of the Pinamungajan police station, Renerio Cabilin Jr., 41, and Dennis Artes, 30 were both welding steel inside a 9-foot-deep excavation site, when the earth started to move.
Contractor Feliciano Media, 56, who was outside the hole supervising his two workers jumped into the cavity hoping to save them from being buried in the loose soil. But before he could save Cabilin and Artes, thick mounds of soil also buried Media alive.
Other workers who witnessed the accident immediately launched a rescue operation using a backhoe and shovel to search for the victims. By the time they managed to pull out Cabilin, Artes and Media from under the soil, all three were unconscious. They were later pronounced dead on arrival at the Carmen Copper Hospital in Toledo City.