Police say construction firm non cooperative in investigation of Brgy. Apas incident

This CDRRMO photo shows the area of the accident that claimed the life of one worker and injured another.

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) said that the firm behind the construction site in Barangay Apas, where an accident happened and killed one worker, has not cooperated with their investigation as of Monday afternoon, May 24, 2021.

Police and building officials here said there will be a composite investigation on the incident that happened at noon last Saturday, May 22, in a construction site of a condominium building. One construction worker died while another one was rescued after a portion of a site caved in.

READ: 1 killed, another injured in project site ‘cave in’ in Brgy Apas

Police Major Renz Talosig, chief of the Mabolo Police Station, said they have yet to establish possible negligence done by the construction firm since they were not able to receive a statement from the firm.

“Pag-abot sa atong investigator, unluckily, kining PLD construction, wa sila muhatag og statement. So atong gibuhat karon, nag follow-up og investigation. Ni adto ang investigator sa site gihapon karon, atong tan-awon kung makakuha ba sya ug laing statement sa PLD construction,” Talosig told the reporters.

(When the investigator arrived in the area, unluckily, PLD construction did not provide any statement. What we did is we conducted a follow-up investigation. The investigator went to the site today, we will see if he will be able to get a statement from PLD construction.)

“Ang katong PLD construction,dili gyud sila cooperative. Dili sila willing muhatag og statement nila, mao to atong gi follow-up karon,” he added.

(PLD construction is not cooperative. They are not willing to provide their statement so we conducted a follow-up today.)

Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the CCPO, said that they are still investigating for possible criminal liabilities that the construction firm may face once they still refuse to cooperate with the investigation.

Parilla said that if PLD construction continues not to cooperate with them, they may face charges of obstruction of justice.

“If kung dili gyud sila mu cooperate sa atong investigation, we could also file obstruction of justice sa company. Kung during sa atong ipadala ngadto nga investigators, og until karon di gihapon sila mu cooperate, we will put it into a record, so that we can also file appropriate charges against the company,” Parilla said.

(If they really won’t cooperate with the investigation, we could file a case of obstruction of justice against the company. If we send  investigators and they still don’t cooperate, we will put in into record so that we can file appropriate charges against the company.)

Meanwhile, police said they have yet to talk  with the families of the victims, Romeo Waniwan and Abel Bautista. Waniwan was killed during the incident while Bautista was injured.

Parilla said they will coordinate with the families of the victims on whether they are determined to file complaints against the firm.

He said the decision of the victims is crucial in processing the possible complaint against the company, since they will stand as complainants. Should they pursue a complaint, Parilla said that the police will be much willing to assist them.

Talosig, in a separate interview with CDN Digital earlier, said that a firm representative told them they will coordinate with the families of the victims for possible settlement.

READ: Firm, developer promise aid to construction accident victims 

Architect Florante Catalan of Cebu City Office of the Building Offical said that they already issued a suspension order against the firm last May 22. On the same day, all workers were also ordered not to continue with the construction. He added that the firm has yet to provide them with the incident report.

CDN Digital tried to get the side of the construction firm through its Facebook page and the cellphone number on the page but messages were unanswered and the numbers couldn’t be reached as of this posting.

/bmjo