Wall caves in, damages 5 houses at BPO construction site

The living room of the Campaner family disappeared in seconds.

Four other houses beside a perimeter wall were also badly damaged when the wall caved in at the construction site for a BPO complex in barangay Apas past 7 p.m. Saturday.

Work was ordered immediately stopped by the labor department as Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama demanded answers for the accident and residents were evacuated.

It was the second time a wall collapsed there, destroying nearby houses in October last year.

The project is a joint venture between the Cebu provincial government and Filinvest.

The contractor Megawide Construction Corp. is building a 10-storey building on a 1.2 hectare government lot for business process outsourcing (BPO) offices.

“It’s a good thing the wall collapsed on a Saturday. If it happened on a weekday, we would have been asleep at the time and crushed underneath it,” said Maribeth Campaner, a mother.

Campaner and four of her children were watching TV on the second floor when they heard a crash behind the house past 7 p.m. last Saturday.

They went downstairs and found half of the living room had collapsed. The floor and wall was gone, giving a clear view of ongoing construction of the BPO building across.

Campaner said they all got out before the outer wall, an old structure of the former Cebu City jail, collapsed on the house.

No one was injured but more than 50 people, mostly call center agents and some families, were displaced by the damage on five houses in Ocma Village near Salinas Drive across IT Park.

The private contractor housed the displaced tenants in three hotels in Cebu City.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama who is scheduled to visit the area today, demanded to know why no measures had been taken to prevent this latest collapse.

He said that if he finds out that the area is unsafe for occupation, he will issue a cease and desist order against construction of the commercial building.

“Police power should be properly exercised so that no residents will go back to the area since there is still a suspected soil movement which may harm their lives,” Rama said.

Ronald Pualo, Megawide Construction Corp. vice president for operations, said the company would take responsibility.

“We will compensate affected residents for all the damages incurred in the accident. We have to make sure that they are safe by providing them hotel accommodation,” he said.

Pualo said they will send a soil engineer to look for ways to strengthen the area. He said the septic tank and drainage system in the affected area caused the wall to collapse.

Excavation work had weakened the foundation of the wall of the former Cebu city jail and a retention wall of another former building of the Philippine Drug Enfrocement Agency which collapsed on the houses.

It was the second time this accident occurred on the site. In October 28 last year, a 20-meter wall also collapsed on five houses built alongside it.

In both cases, the collapse was blamed on ongoing excavation or slope protection for the foundation of the building under construction.

Seventeen residents were billeted this weekend at the Verbena Capitol Suites Cebu while 20 others were transferred to the Northwinds Cebu Hotel.

Another 11 are billeted at JY Crown Palace while other occupants are in nearby apartments in Ocma Village. The contractor is ready to shoulder expenses of the hotel stay for two months. Tents were set up for other tenants.

Apas barangay chairman Ramil Ayuman said the area is unsafe for residents to live. He said they cordoned the site and designated barangay tanods to guard it and keep occupants from returning.

Simeon Romarate, executive director of the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Council, said they are monitoring the residents of Ocma Village.

STOP WORK

Work was immediately ordered stopped by labor department officials.

“Until such time that they can show proof of safe procedures and conditions of work in accordance with Department Order 13 on construction safety, we won’t lift the work stoppage order,” said Asst. Regional Director Lilia Estillore of the Department of Labor and Employment in Central Visayas (Dole 7).

She said in a text message that the order was issued by Dole 7 Regional Director Chona Mantilla.

For now, Campaner and her family are temporarily staying at the chapel beside their house.

She said she noticed two months ago that there were leaks all over the house.

Barangay captain Ayuman said that homes beside the old wall of the jail don’t have proper drainage. He said he reminded Megawide to look into complaints of leaks in other houses and to build a drainage system for the occupants.

Companer said when she and neighbors complained to Megawide about the leaks but a company representative assured that they would pay for the damages.

“We scolded the Megawide personnel because if they hadn’t excavate the soil under the wall it wouldn’t have collapsed. The wall’s foundation weakened,” Campaner said in Cebuano.

Her four children plan to attend classes tomorrow without their books, bags and school uniforms which were lost in the collapse.

Jingjing Catibo, a caretaker of a boarding house, said she, her four children and one grandchild were fortunate to be attending church services last night when the wall collapsed. /Christine Emily L. Pantaleon, Correspondent