■ CITY WANTS GOV'T. CONDO VACATED; TO FILE CASE VS. BUILDER
417 students living in the condominium vacated the four-storey building last month
The Cebu City Government wants the Cityowned condominium on N. Bacalso Ave. vacated for the safety of student occupants there. Mayor Tomas Osmeña said the City will file complaints for criminal negligence against those behind the construction of the edifice. “We will be filing charges against the contractor. That condominium was an anomaly. They failed to follow proper procedures, which include soil boring to see whether the foundation was good enough. That’s criminal negligence,” he said. The contractor, the mayor said, had been banned from handling City-funded projects.
The Cebu City Government ordered the abandonment of its condominium on N. Bacalso Ave. due to the danger it poses to the students who live there.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña said he will be filing a complaint for criminal negligence against those who were responsible for the facility’s construction.
“We will be filing charges against the contractor. That condominium was an anomaly. They failed to follow proper procedures, which include soil boring to see whether the foundation was good enough. That’s criminal negligence,” he said.
The mayor said the Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) and the Office of the Building Official (OBO) recommended the condemnation of the structure due to several problems.
Engr. Josefa Ylanan, chief of DEPW and OBO, said that in the latest inspection they made, they found out that the condominium stands on top of a sinkhole.
“There were cracks. The plumbing was also problemat- ic but the biggest factor that we considered was the sinkhole. It affected the foundation of the building that’s why we told the mayor that the students should be evacuated,” Ylanan told SunStar Cebu.
The building houses scholars of the City who came from the mountain barangays.
Condominium Administrator Kevin Crister Paz said that 417 students were asked to vacate the building last June 15.
Osmeña said the City will give P1,000 monthly rental subsidy to the affected students for six months.
The mayor said the City will no longer construct another condominium.
He prefers to put up two colleges in the mountain barangays so the students there will no longer have to go to the city proper to get an education. /