Not yet safe to return to orphanage
The children and nuns have vacated the orphanage in the mountain barangay of San Jose, Cebu City where a wall riprap below the building caved in during a heavy rain Wednesday night.
But the My Bonita Home for Girls would have to remain vacant until a thorough inspection is made of its foundation, said Cebu City Building Office Josefa Ylanan.
Another downpour could worsen soil erosion and cause the building to collapse, she said.
“The soil is eroded below. We told the nuns to get their own engineer so that they could do something with the foundation,” Ylanan told Cebu Daily News.
Over 80 girls and four nuns of the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart vacated the three-storey building after the retaining wall in front of their compound gave way past 9 p.m.
They transferred to another religious facility, the Tabor Hill of the Order of the Discalced Agustinians.
Building inspectors went to the site Thursday to check on the landslide with city engineer Kenneth Carmelita Enriquez. They will return to ask for a copy of the building plan.
“We need to look at the building plan, when the building permit and the occupancy permits were issued and get information about its contractor,” Ylanan said.
The review would help determine if the contractor complied with specifications of the building plan.
“So far, we haven’t seen anything wrong with the building. We’re just afraid something may happen if it rains hard again,” she said.
The building is under the contractor’s liability within 15 years from construction, she said. Before deciding to build, they should have looked at the capacity of the soil and what reinforcements are needed to prevent any landslides, said Ylanan. She said the nuns were advised to get an engineer to check the integrity of the building and find out what remedial measures can be made.
