DOLE-7 Halts Work On Mactan Air Base Hangar After Truss Fall Killed Worker

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Region 7 has suspended construction work on a hangar inside the Benito Ebuen Mactan Air Base in Lapu-Lapu City after the fall of a truss killed a worker on Sunday.

DOLE-7 Director Exequiel Sarcauga said the agency automatically stops work in a site where a fatal accident has taken place.

The hangar is one of the structures being built by the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) under a PHP820-million project to replicate Philippine Air Force (PAF) facilities which were demolished to pave the way for construction of the new second Mactan airport terminal (T2).

It was scheduled for turnover to the MCIAA and the PAF on March 31.

Major Vivien Valerio of the 560th Air Base Wing said the hangar will be for the 5th Fighter Wing and 15th Strike Wing of the PAF.

Engineer Pedro Adonis Compendio, an MCIAA consultant, said the hangar is the last structure of the MCIAA replication project for the PAF, which includes eight structures, a 10-hectare ramp and a road network.

Compendio said the other sub-projects were completed after the contractor Pamatong Grandby cleared the area last Dec. 31, 2015.

Granby Project Engineer Benuardo Maralit said the company will not resume construction of the hangar pending an investigation of the accident.

The contractor has promised to shoulder the expenses of the family of Benjamin Muñez, as well as the families of two other workers injured last Sunday.

Mary Flor Rañola, Muñez’s live-in partner, said the family will not file a case against the company.

Muñez, 35, died after trusses collapsed past 11 a.m. last Sunday, while two of his co-workers, welders Celso Gestopa, 56, and Roel Omolon, 36, were injured. (PNA) LAP/EB/EDS