INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Zamboanga del Sur–Carpenter Rossel Astuto Domingo, 52, was trying to fix a scaffolding when he accidentally stepped on a slippery metal bar and fell from a two-storey building on Thursday morning.
Police Colonel Alexander Lorenzo, city police director, said Domingo fell on his head and died.
The incident happened at around 9:30 a.m., at La Purisima Street, Barangay Zone 3, this city.
Domingo, one of the contracted laborers of Bendimil Construction, was working without any protective gears like hardhat, safety rubber boots, gloves, and safety harness or rope.
The Department of Labor and Employment here dispatched an investigator to assess the situation where Domingo was working.
In an interview with Wesley Tan, DOLE’s technical support and services division chief, said their director Imelda Gatinao, signed and dispatched “an occupational safety and health standard investigator to look into that and conduct assessment if there was workplace violation that led to the accident of a carpenter.”
“We immediately sent an inspector to look into this. Initially we noticed common gaps like absence of protective safety gears in work places but we are waiting for the report from our labor investigators and we follow process like calling their attention, and if there’s an imminent danger, we will call for stoppage of work order and within 24 hours, we will make some immediate correction to abate the danger,” Tan said.
The DOLE will also look into the social services records of Domingo. “If he is registered with the SSS and PAGIBIG, the immediate surviving family will receive benefits.”
From January to this date, there were two cases reported of accidental fall inside Western Mindanao State University, involving college students. One was an architecture student who fell
from the second floor of the College of Engineering building, the other one fell from the College of Computing Studies building.
In the case of Domingo, Lorenzo said investigation is ongoing in Figaro building. “ln case the construction firm will not be going to help the family, they can file a complaint.”
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