3 injured as platform in Manila construction site collapses

Three construction workers were rushed to the hospital after the platform they were on while working on a building in Manila collapsed on Friday.

Allan Toledo, chief of operations of the city’s disaster risk reduction management unit, said Ramil Dela Cruz, 25; Mark John Deletavo, 18; and Guiller Sia, 19; had to be taken to Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center after the incident around 11 a.m. on Bustillos St., Sampaloc.

Toledo said the three were standing on a “four-to-five-inches-thick” concrete platform, “placing joints in a scaffolding” on the second floor of what was going to be a Jollibee fastfood establishment, when it (the platform) gave in and fell to the ground.

“When the platform fell, one construction worker, Dela Cruz, was hit by the steels of the building’s scaffolding and a part of the concrete, so now he has a possible fracture in the right leg,” Toledo said.

He said the other two—Deletavo and Sia—suffered only minor bruises.

According to Toledo, the 12-foot long “protruding” platform or the “overlap slab,” which was an element of the two-story building that helped prevent rain from hitting its walls, appeared to have been weakened by the rainfall on Thursday night.

He said those who constructed the platform appeared to have applied the “wrong methodology.”

“It’s because it appears the platform lacked braces. It should have a strong foundation, but we saw it was only on top of eroded soil,” Toledo explained.

He said his office had already recommended that the construction workers of the firm—which he had yet to determine—stop their work while an investigation into possible violations of the Building Code was being undertaken by the City Engineering Office.

“If the engineering office finds there are violations, construction work there can stop,” Toledo said./rga