SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – A subcontractor of the Korean firm Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Philippines Inc. (HHICPI), which employed the worker who was electrocuted on Tuesday here, was blacklisted after it was found that it was operating without a permit.

Armand Arreza, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) administrator, said the Unicorn T (UT) Corp. submitted the accreditation requirements to the SBMA only on Aug. 7, six months after it started operations.

One of Unicorn T’s workers, Efren de la Cruz, 24, a machine operator of Bataan, was electrocuted while working at the Hanjin shipyard’s motor pool on Tuesday.

Arreza said the accident also prompted SBMA to blacklist other unaccredited Hanjin contractors and suspend their operations indefinitely.

“We are looking into the accreditation of all of Hanjin’s subcontractors,” he said.

In a statement, the SBMA said De la Cruz “was accidentally electrocuted” while working at the shipyard’s motor pool. He and four other workers were using a power-driven tool when the accident happened, the SBMA said.

Pyeong Jung Yu, Hanjin general manager, earlier said De la Cruz died after a heart attack.

Amethya Koval, SBMA Ecology Center chief, said initial investigation showed there was rainwater in the area where De la Cruz was working.

“There were five of them in the group. But only three of them were wearing company-issued rubber boots,” she said.

She said the jackhammer De la Cruz was using was connected to an extension wire that might have fallen or gotten in contact with the water, “thus electrocuting the unprotected worker,” she said.

De la Cruz was taken to the shipyard’s clinic for first aid treatment and was transferred to the San Marcelino District Hospital where he died.

The attending doctor observed that De la Cruz had “bleeding nose and ears, blackened lips and fingers” which, he noted, were signs of electrocution.

Koval noted Hanjin’s “failure to enforce occupational safety regulations on its subcontractors and the lack of supervision by its safety officers on critical working environment.”

Earlier, the SBMA asked Hanjin to terminate the accreditation of three subcontractors that failed to implement occupational safety standards at the shipyard.