Ash Wednesday tragedy

Religious devotion turned to tragedy yesterday after a portion of the balcony of a church in Bulacan came crashing down, hitting people attending Ash Wednesday mass. Luneta Morales, an 80-year-old member of the choir, died in a hospital at past noon, hours after she joined an estimated 400 people in an early morning mass at St. Peter the Apostle parish church in San Jose del Monte. Nearly 50 people were taken to hospitals for injuries.

Although the church is relatively new, having been built in 1994, the city’s disaster management office said the wooden balcony had been weakened by termites. The area is typically used by the church choir and those who assist during mass, but crowding yesterday for the Ash Wednesday rites reportedly prompted some churchgoers to go up to the balcony.

All activities at the church have been suspended as the city government of San Jose del Monte tries to pinpoint lapses that might have contributed to the accident. Local government units are supposed to inspect buildings especially those frequented by the public as well as offices with many employees for compliance with building and fire safety codes. Termite-eaten flooring would not have escaped a thorough inspection.

The tragedy, however, highlights the complexity of this task. The country lacks engineers or trained personnel to efficiently assess structural integrity. Apart from the lack of trained manpower, the attitude of those tasked to inspect buildings is that people should have enough sense to look after the structural integrity and fire safety of their own dwellings, offices and other properties.

In this land where religious devotion runs deep, laxity in enforcing building safety rules is usually greater when it comes to houses of worship or places engaged in charity work or operated by religious groups. In December 1998, 25 children and five adults died when the 85-year-old Bahay Kalinga orphanage in Paco, Manila, made mostly of wooden materials, was destroyed in a fire caused by faulty electrical wiring.

In the case of St. Peter the Apostle church, people reported hearing noise from the balcony, but did not immediately recognize it as the sound of a structure starting to collapse. From the collapsed portion, church and city officials saw that the wood flooring had been eaten by termites. Even if this problem had been spotted earlier by both the parish administrators and city inspectors, however, would the balcony have been repaired, replaced or declared off-limits to the public?

The country has enough laws on building and fire safety. As in most laws, however, the problem is poor enforcement and weak voluntary compliance. The tragedy in San Jose del Monte is not the first related to building safety, and it won’t be the last.