- Three workers were buried alive at a construction site in Antipolo City
- Twelve cubic meters of soil, equivalent to a truckload, collapsed on the victims
- The construction company vows to assist the victims’ families
Three construction workers were killed after they were buried alive when an estimated 12 cubic meters of excavated soil, equivalent to a truckload of soil, collapsed on them at a construction site in Antipolo City.
InterAksyon said the three victims were with two other workers when the retaining wall of a 30-foot pit they were working on collapsed at around 8:00 a.m., near the part of the construction site where the excavated soil were earlier dumped.
The two other workers were able to run to safety. One of them, identified as Jessie Lorica, sustained a minor injury. He was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
The fatalities were identified as brothers Darwin and Teten Villegas and their cousin Reiny Villegas.
Rescuers were able to retrieve the body of the first victim around noon. The second body was recovered after more than an hour later, while the last victim’s body was pulled at around 2:30 in the afternoon.
An ABS-CBN News Channel report said that according to Engineer Frederick del Rosario of Mheric Construction, the contractor for the building’s retaining wall, they did not notice that the state of the soil was softer than usual.
William Mirabueno, an official from the Antipolo City Hall, said the investigation showed the soil collapsed because they were loosened by waste water flowing from nearby houses.
Officials from the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) Rizal provincial office noted that the workers had no personal protective equipment and that the contractor had no health and safety program for the workers.
“Because some people have died, we will issue a work stoppage order upon approval of our regional office,” Marivic Martinez, OIC of DOLE’s Rizal provincial office, said, adding “appropriate sanctions, if necessary, will be imposed.”
The construction company promised to shoulder the funeral and other expenses incurred by the victims’ families.
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