At least six construction workers were confirmed dead after a concrete wall collapsed on their barracks in Barangay Kaybagal Central in Tagaytay City on Monday night, police said.
Tagaytay City police chief Col. Norman Ranon said the bodies of five more victims were retrieved from the rubble on Tuesday afternoon.
Rescuers earlier recovered three victims—two of them alive, while one was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
Ranon said one of the survivors was the project engineer who sustained minor bruises from the incident.
“We already have names (of the victims). We are just withholding it for the meantime because we have yet to talk or communicate with their respective families. We have a total of eight victims, two of whom are in stable condition,” Ranon said in a radio interview.
Rescuers deployed by the local Bureau of Fire Protection, the Tagaytay City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO), and the Cavite Provincial DRRMO worked together in the race against time to recover the bodies of the victims.
Initial reports said the workers were resting at the barracks of 3-13 Construction when the six-meter concrete fence blocks of the adjacent Hortaleza Farm caved in at around 6:20 p.m. amid a heavy rain.
City Administrator Gregorio Monreal said an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the incident and the liability of the structure’s owners.
“Iimbestigahan pa namin kasi base dun sa initial assessment, may dati nang pader pero dinagdagan lang nila. Yung structure per see, may building permit pero ‘yung additional works ay parang hindi properly coordinated sa City Engineer’s Office (We are investigating because based on the initial assessment, there is already a wall that was earlier built but there seem to be additional works. The structure per se has a building permit but it seems the additional works are not properly coordinated with the City Engineer’s Office),” Monreal told reporters.
