Assess contractors, buildings, owners told

The Cebu City Council asked the management of Ayala Center Cebu to review their process of selecting  contractors after Monday evening’s accident where the ceiling boards of the mall’s newest cinema collapsed during a special screening of a corporate event.

“Ayala Center Cebu is one of the busiest malls in the city with hundreds of visitors daily. How safe is the Ayala building for the public?” Councilor Roberto Cabarrubias said in a privilege speech during yesterday’s council session.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama met earlier at 9 a.m. with representatives of Ayala Center Cebu, Gaisano Country Mall and Oriente Theater.

He asked them to submit a report on the conditions of their buildings within one week and to conduct periodic inspections of their structures.

“They have the best engineers compared to us (in government) because they’re well paid.  We don’t have enough people.  How can we cover all the technical details?
said the mayor.

Nine persons were injured when part of the ceiling of Ayala Cinema 5 collapsed with water gushing down to guests below  before acoustic panel  boards fell  during a launch event of Dreamscape Networks Inc., a business process outsourcing (BPO) outfit.

Lawyer Jeannette Japzon,  corporate communications manager of Cebu Holdings Inc., said five of the nine injured Dreamscape employees were brought to the hospital and scheduled for discharge yesterday.

“We made an offer to take care of their hospital bills and our offer still stands,” she said.

In its incident report to the Office of the Building Official (OBO), Ayala management said  water leaking from the sprinkler system caused the ceiling boards to give way. Investigation continues on what caused the leak. Scaffolds are being  built  inside the cinema to allow inspectors of  OBO to examine the ceiling closer.

Japzon said  all cinemas of the mall are undergoing a comprehensive inspection.

Councilor Cabarrubias pointed out that  Republic Act 4566 or the Contractors’ License Law requires all  contractors that engage in business to have a  license from the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board.

“It is but necessary to take a look on how do Ayala selects its contractors. Were the materials used in building Cinema 5 based on quality standards? Or were low cost or substandard materials used which led to the incident?” Cabarrubias said in his speech.

The council asked OBO and the  committee on infrastructure to inspect the area and recommend  how to prevent similar incidents from happening.