Labella tells OBO to issue CDO vs owner of collapsed housing project wall in Brgy Bacayan

Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella (wearing blue T-shirt) inspects the area in Upper Bacayan where the wall of a housing development project collapsed. | Photo grabbed from the Facebook page of Edgar Collina

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella has directed the Office of the Building Official (OBO) to issue a cease and desist order against the owner of a housing development project in Sitio Sugarlandia, Barangay Bacayan following the collapsed of their concrete fence early this morning. October 12.

He warned of the filing of appropriate charges if the project owner is found to have neglected safety procedures at the construction site.

Labella also ordered the immediate evacuation of residents in the area.

“I told OBO to issue a cease and desist because it is clearly not safe. We will also evacuate some of the residents because it may be dangerous for them,” Labella told CDN Digital in an interview after he visited the area at noontime today.

The concrete fence of a development project in Upper Bacayan collapsed at around 5 a.m. today damaging the concrete wall of a house that is located below the project site.  Debris from the collapsed fence also damaged three other nearby hoses.

Labella said residents, most of whom were still asleep when the concrete fence collapsed, were lucky that no one got hurt during the incident.

Still, Labella said there was a need to immediately vacate the vicinity of the construction site to ensure the safety of residents in the area.

Architect Florante Catalan, the OBO head, identified the owner of the development project as a certain Jess Carlo Minoza.

Based on their initial investigation, Minoza already had a 60-unit apartment built in Upper Bacayan. This has been fully occupied.  An expansion project involving a 20 unit apartment is now ongoing.

“Walay consultant. Walay engineer nga nag supervise hollow block filling. Dili pouring of concrete. Walay lintel beam. Gamay ra ang weep holes. Fill up materials sila sir para mo level sila sa road,” Catalan said in a report which he sent to Mayor Labella this afternoon.

(The project does not have a consultant. They do not have an engineer to supervise the hollow block filling. They are not using concrete pouring. They did not use lintel beams. They only have very few weep holes. They are using filling materials to make the project site level with the road.)

Catalan said that a notice of illegal construction was already issued to Minoza after they found that the apartment project lacked a building permit.  The project owner have also been advised to “stop and make mitigating measures on affected areas.”

Labella said that the CDO will stay until such time that its owner is able to introduce corrective measures that will ensure the integrity of their ongoing project.

The mayor said that there was a need to especially look into the quality of the soil in the area and determine if this can hold heavy weight.  He said that the collapse happened while the soil was dry since it did not rain in Barangay Bacayan today.

Catalan told CDN Digital that they are now conducting a “thorough” investigation on the cause of the concrete fence’s collapse while they have already secured the area. / dcb