ANGELES CITY – A fact-finding task force has been formed by Mayor Carmelo “Jon” Lazatin II to conduct a “full and impartial” investigation into the collapse of the building under construction along Teodoro St. IN Barangay Balibago last May 24.
In a media conference at the sangguniang panlungsod hall here on May 30, Lazatin also announced the preventive suspension of city building officer Ar. Norbert Lagman and city engineer’s office structural engineer Engr. Marlon Lingat for 60 days beginning June 1 pending the investigation.
To comprise the fact-finding task force are the city administrator or a senior official he will designate as chair, the city legal officer as vice chair and representatives from the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Bureau of Fire Protection, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers, Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines, and United Architects of the Philippines, along with the chairs of the city council committees on engineering and disaster, and the city police director.
Joining Lazatin at the presser were city legal counsel Atty. Darwin Reyes, city administrator Atty. Noel Luzung, Bureau of Fire Protection spokesperson FSupt. Maria Leah Sajili, counsel for the building owner Atty. Willie Rivera, and counsel for contractor Golden Years Construction and Steel Works Corp. Atty. Nico Manguerra.
Rivera said his clients will also conduct a parallel investigation “to clarify and verify what really happened” and would cooperate with the Angeles LGU fact-finding task force.
“We will also secure the services of structural engineers,” he said, to determine the cause of the structural failure.
Explaining why the owners of the building and the construction firm were not present during the media conference, both lawyers said their clients were at the moment focused on providing assistance to the victims and their families.
According to Manguerra, the families of the two casualties had already reached out to the owner and contractor for funeral and burial assistance.
As of noontime of May, Bureau of Fire Protection responders have retrieved six fatalities from the rubble – four construction workers, a Malaysian national, and an unidentified male casualty.
Retrieval and clearing operations are going on. Punto News Team