Scaffolding of Lite Shipping Corp. building in Tejero, Cebu City collapses at dawn

Office of Building Official (OBO) stops work pending compliance with permits

"Ginoo, tabangi ko! (Lord, help me)." That was the reaction of 46-year-old mason Sario Sanico, when he saw the roof beam of the building he was working on with 13 other construction workers collapse at dawn yesterday.

This caused the scaffolding to buckle down.

Sanico suffered a gash in his neck and his leg is swollen because of a sprain when he and two others jumped from the seventh floor to a lower beam, or an estimated height of 3.9 meters.

Probable cause

The building in Barangay Tejero, Cebu City, belongs to the Lite Properties Corp. It's being built by Devlarn Ventures and Devel- opment Corp. (DVDC).

Jessie Revillas, a laborer, sustained a bruise in his back when he jumped with Sanico.

"We poured cement the other day. When we continued to pour the cement at 4 a.m., someone shouted that we should jump because the scaffolding was collapsing," Revillas said in Cebuano.

"It's a good thing, I managed to hang on to a steel bar," he added.

Also wounded in his right foot was Jondel Villaver, 21.

Safety officer Noli Platino said that one of the aluminum beams of the scaffolding gave out.

"It probably couldn't handle our weight," he said in Cebuano.

Engineer John Polistico, project manager, said that they already applied for a building permit.

"We submitted last November but they have comments in our title blocks so we settled it. They already received the documents in their office last April and our building permit is under compliance," Polistico said.

Not earthquake-proof

Engineer Ebaristo Pakada of Devlarn assured that the building structure is sturdy.

"It was just the canopy that collapsed not the whole floor," he said.

Engineer Nilo Igot of the Office of the Building Official also pointed out that a flat slab was used.

"It's prohibited… as we are in the earthquake zone. It's prohibited in the national structural code," Igot said in a live report in Superbalita Cebu.

"It's dangerous during earthquakes," he added.