Photo Courtesy of CDRRMO head, Ramil Ayuman
CEBU CITY, Philippines—The Cebu City government provided financial assistance to the family of an 11-year old victim of an accident in Barangay Sto. Niño here.
Strong winds at noon of October 10, 2021, caused a railing placed along P. Burgos Street to fall on the 11-year-old boy.
The boy was with his mother, who was selling candles outside the Basilica Minore Del Sto. Niño.
The Cebu City government decided to help the family because of the tragic incident caused by the city’s own property.
Portia Basmayor, the head of the DSWS, personally delivered P10,000 cash assistance to the family on Monday evening, October 11, 2021.
Ramil Ayuman, the administrative head of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRMMO), shared a photo of the handing of assistance in a Facebook post.
The CDRRMO attempted to save the child by rushing him to the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) but it was too late.
The railings that killed the child were placed by the Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) for the filing of Certificate of Candidacies (COC) last week at the Commission on Election (Comelec) offices.
Councilor David Tumulak, the chairperson of for disaster risk reduction, wants the incident to be investigated so that it will not happen again.
“Sa ako pagtanaw, aduna toy lapses sa CCTO ug Engineering, kay pag Friday pa gud to nahuman ang filing, pero wa gyod nakuha ang barriers,” said Tumulak.
(The way I look at it, CCTO and the Engineering Department have lapses because the filing ended last Friday but they didn’t remove the barriers.)
The councilor clarified that he does not want anyone to be charged but only wants protocols set in place so such tragic incident will no longer happen again.
He urged the CCTO to remove unnecessary barriers on the streets if not used so accidents can be avoided.
The Basilica already offered to cover the cost of the burial of the child as well.
/bmjo
READ MORE: Box jellyfish sting sends 11-year-old boy to hospital in Tuburan