Cebu City engineer condemns 4 buildings

THREE private owned buildings and the Pasil Fish Market in Cebu City were declared unfit for occupancy and were ordered abandoned due to damage caused by the Oct. 15 earthquake.

Engr. Kenneth Carmelita Enriquez said the four buildings have either collapsed or are about to collapse.

Red stickers were pasted on the three-storey building housing Antonio’s Budget Builders on N. Bacalso Ave. The building collapsed.

Red stickers were also pasted on the Cangha building on the corner of Legaspi and Lapu Lapu Streets and the GMC building across Plaza Independencia.

The top floors of the Cangha and GMC buildings were badly damaged and may collapse if a strong quake or aftershock occurs.

Enriquez said the City Engineering Office received 206 requests to inspect government and public structures.

So far, half of the buildings have been checked.

“We cannot inspect all because we’ve received so many requests but we’re doing the best we can. We are prioritizing badly hit structures,” she said.

Restricted

Of the inspected structures, four were found to be already hazardous while the rest only had surface cracks and other minor defects.

Enriquez said three kinds of stickers will be posted.

Green stickers mean that the structure was already “inspected” and found to be safe.

A yellow gold sticker is posted on structures deemed “restricted” and in need of immediate repair.

The red sticker is for buildings that should be abandoned.

Raquel Arce, head of the city’s market operations division, said operations of the Pasil Fish Market whose roof collapsed, killing four people, had to be relocated to the nearby Pasil fish port.

Clearing operations are needed on the collapsed firewall of the T. Padilla satellite market, she said. Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac