Occupants return to homes, bewail lack of assistance

Some of them stayed in air-conditioned hotels and inns.

But other residents of Ocma village in barangay Apas, Cebu City returned to their homes that were damaged by a wall that collapsed Saturday evening.

A yellow cordon marked “Caution” was set up at the entrance of the newly identified danger zone.

Some residents like 31-year-old mother Maribeth Campaner, lifted the cordon and entered to see if what remained of their belongings were still there.

“My children want to go to school today, but all of their materials were damaged when the wall collapsed. They (Megawide Construction Corp.) promised to retrieve our belongings but they buried it in soil,” Campaner said in Cebuano.

The Office of the Building Official (OBO) of Cebu City Hall is expected to issue a suspension order today against Megawide Construction Corp.

Building Official Engr. Kenneth Carmelita Enriquez told Cebu Daily News in a text message that she would issue the order for all site activities of Megawide.

“This is the second time that happened in the same area. Our structural consultant together with our head enforcement in the OBO will be there by 9:30 am,” she said.

Last year in October, another section of the same perimeter wall collapsed, damaging five houses at the project site of a BPO complex on a 1.2 hectare lot of the provincial government in joint venture with Filinvest.

Maribeth, who works at Annie Rose as a production worker, said she was absent for two days waiting for the cash assistance promised y Megawide.

“Since Sunday, we have received nothing. We cannot immediately leave our place because we are afraid that by the time we leave, the representative will also arrive,” Yolly Lopez, Maribeth’s neighbor said.

Megawide promised to pay for the damage and to shelter the affected residents.

Residents who chose to stay near their homes were not provided bed sheets and blankets.

The Campaner and Lopez families were unable to sleep comfortably in the apartments since they were unused to the airconditioned rooms.

After last Saturday’s accident, all they had left were the clothes on their backs.

Project Manager Nazareno Abalos of Megawide Construction Corp. said they can’t start renovating the houses because they still have to present the methodology design to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the OBO.

The labor department issued a work stoppage order right after the incident.

“We will be responsible for what happened,” Abalos said. Enriquez confirmed Abalos’s statement.

“We will let their designer explain. This is the second time already. They have to be serious with this especially if the risk to life is high,” Enriquez added.

The wall collapse was traced to ongoing excavation by the company which weakened the foundation of the wall, which used to form part of the old Cebu City jail.

Enriquez told Cebu Daily News that if Megawide Construction Corp. is unable to implement their submitted building plans, they will have to revise and resubmit their plans to the OBO. /Christine Emily L.Pantaleon and Jose Santino S. Bunachita, Correspondents