Court roof collapses, barely missing kids

NAAWAN, Misamis Oriental — A group of children barely escaped tragedy after the roof of an elementary school’s court in this town collapsed just minutes after the students had gone back to their classrooms from a morning recess on Friday, Jan. 25.

Teacher Lorry Dandasan said she heard a loud cracking sound coming from the court, prompting her to peep out of her classroom window and see that the court’s roof had collapsed.

“It happened very quickly, just seconds,” Dandasan said.
“It was so scary to think that during recess or class breaks, our children were playing there,” she said.

“Good thing the children were already inside their classrooms,” Dandasan added.

Workers hurt

Two unidentified workers, who were installing galvanized iron on the court roof, were brought to a hospital after they fell down with the roof.

One of the workers suffered a broken leg after a girder fell on him while the other suffered minor injuries and was immediately discharged from the hospital.

Ramon Leotero, chair of Linangkayan village, said the court was a project of the provincial government worth P2.3 million and financed by the Special Education Funds.

The project was awarded to contractor Dy Construction, Leotero said. It started in July 2018 and was supposed to be finished this month.

“From the start, I already questioned the project because the posts are too small,” Leotero said.

Technical expertise

“I said ‘why are those posts small?’ The workers answered ‘that is in the plan,’” Leotero added.

“I said the engineer is crazy,” Leotero said in an interview.

Ric Gabe, public schools district supervisor of Naawan, said he would ask the municipal engineer’s office to investigate.

“We are not engineers so we really cannot tell if the materials the contractor used are fit for the kind of facility it built,” Gabe said.