Six workers die after wall collapses in Tagaytay
Six construction workers in Tagaytay died after a 30-foot wall next to their barracks fell because of heavy rains, the Cavite Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) said Tuesday.
“Six victims were already dead. (The retrieval operations) were terminated at 12:30,” CDRRMO Officer Clyde Yayon told The Daily Manila Shimbun in a phone interview.
City Administrator Gregorio Monreal said five bodies were recovered Monday while one was declared dead on arrival in a hospital.
“Unfortunately, one of the victims we rescued yesterday also died. Now, we have retrieved five bodies,” Monreal told reporters.
In a dzBB interview, Tagaytay police chief Lt. Col. Norman Ranon refused to name the victims because they have not yet contacted their families.
Engineer Marco Paulo Abarientos and construction worker Nino Villasquez survived the incident.
According to a report by the Cavite police, the incident in Barangay Kaybagal Central happened at 6:20 pm.
Investigators said the victims were resting in their barracks when a concrete wall collapsed on them due to rains.
Abarientos said in a separate interview in dzBB that the wall, which was around 30 feet high, was built when they started constructing a house on May 16.
“One of us who was outside near the wall shouted that it was going to fall so the three of us ran,” he said.
Monreal said they have ordered a probe to see if the owner of the farm is liable for the incident.
Probers found out that additional construction work was done on the wall without the workers' knowledge. Jaspearl Tan/DMS
