25 Cebu buildings tagged unsafe after quake

CEBU CITY—At least 25 buildings, including one that houses courts and judges’ offices, had been declared off limits following the Oct. 15  7.2-magnitude quake, with an epicenter in Bohol province, that struck parts of the Visayas and Mindanao.

Two of the unsafe buildings are the Palace of Justice and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Central Visayas office.

The Palace of Justice houses courts and judges’ offices.

The city’s Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) pegged the damage caused by the tremor at about P300 million.

The unsafe buildings included five government offices, four public college buildings, two barangay halls, a commercial bank, a health center, a public hospital, a city office, a private elementary school, two private high schools and four commercial buildings.

Aside from the Palace of Justice and the regional office of the CHR, three other government buildings declared unsafe were the Malacañang sa Sugbu, Police National Training Institute in Barangay Apas and  Compania Maritima.

The barangay halls in Mambaling in the south district and Pung-ol Sibugay in the mountains had been vacated, as well as the Union Bank office along Borromeo Street in downtown Cebu City.

Other structures declared as off limits are the city-owned Cebu City Medical Center, the Cebu Normal University Teachers’ College building along Osmeña Boulevard, GMC Plaza near Plaza Independencia and the Cangha building near Basilica Minore del Sto. Nino which lost its belfry during the quake.

Four other unsafe structures are the water tank in the city abattoir, Cangha Builders on Legaspi Street, Antonio’s and Budget Builders on N. Bacalso Avenue and St. Mary’s Academy High School.

Guillermo Diola of the DEPW said these buildings would be cordoned off until repairs were done.

Private building owners, Diola said, “will have to hire their own engineers to determine how they can cure the defects of their buildings.”

Diola, who consolidated data from an inspection of the damaged buildings, said huge cracks found in the buildings indicated severe damage, making these “hazardous.”

“We pasted red stickers on these structures to warn the public against their use. Building owners have to have their structures repaired if not rebuilt and certified as safe for occupancy by their structural engineers,”  Diola said.

The safety certificate will be submitted to the Office of the Building Officials,  which will inspect the structure.

The DEPW had inspected 373 buildings after the earthquake. Of the number, 25 were declared off limits  and 69 were issued yellow gold stickers indicating “restricted use.”

Other buildings had been issued colored stickers to signify these had been inspected and declared fit for occupancy.

The DEPW has to inspect 838 other structures.