Standards

For the second time in as many weeks, we are pulling bodies from the wreckage.

The Intensity VII earthquake that struck Saranggani yesterday morning is not a small quake. A tsunami alert was raised. Buildings collapsed. We are still counting the casualties.

The other week, without an earthquake, a building under construction in Angeles City, Pampanga collapsed. The frantic rescue effort failed to rescue all those trapped under the debris. About two dozen individuals were killed by the failing structure.

From newspaper photos alone, one could surmise that the structure collapsed because the builders were using substandard steel reinforcement bars. The word in the industry has it that the steel bars used in this construction were sourced from a factory in Magalang, Pampanga using obsolete technology banned in China.

A few years ago, the Chinese government ordered factories using obsolete technologies scuttled. These factories were largely responsible for the thick haze over major cities such as Beijing. After the old factories were dismantled, the sky cleared particularly over Beijing.

While the old factories were scuttled, many were not scrapped. Instead, these highly polluting factories were transported to neighboring economies that accepted them despite the hazards they posed. Some were “exported” mainly for money-laundering purposes.

The Philippines accepted many of these outdated factories. The first ones were erected in the town of San Simon in Pampanga. The area was favored both because the local government welcomed them and also because the town was on the outer limit of Meralco’s service area, assuring the inefficient factories stable power supply.

Residents constantly complained about these plants. They poisoned the air, causing many health problems. They caused tin roofs to rust quickly. The old technologies used consumed inordinate amounts of power – to produce substandard products.

One theory about these plants is that they somehow became viable as businesses because their substandard products were consumed by unscrupulous contractors involved in corruption-ridden public works projects. They were part of the ecosystem of corruption-driven substandard construction. They will remain viable for as long as corrupt syndicates maintain their hold over government construction projects.

These obsolete factories, condemned in China, should not have been allowed into the country in the first place. But the Department of Trade and Industry, eager to chalk up “investment” numbers to their credit, uncritically allowed them in. This happens even as the Office of Civil Defense has taken the view that substandard steel manufacturers are a hazard to public safety not only because they pollute our air but also because they expose our people’s life and limbs to unsafe structures.

It takes too long for us to learn.

When a strong quake rocked Bohol several years back, public structures – including bridges – failed. Those failures added to the human toll. Even then, the alarm was raised over the fact that many of the structures that failed used substandard steel reinforcement.

On paper, we do have stricter building standards. Structures are supposed to withstand Intensity IX quakes. On paper.

In reality, the culture of corruption that seems to have seeped into every aspect of government allows substandard structures to be built. Municipal engineers look the other way. Or else, they do not have the equipment and the expertise to test building materials for their tensile strength.

There are instances where the reinforcement bars used for building are undersized. At other times, they fail to meet the seismic standards that have been recently adopted. If they come from the obsolete plants relocated from China to the Philippines, the steel is simply substandard. When used for the weight-bearing parts of structures, they are prone to give way at the first tremors.

I have seen some of the photos coming out of General Santos City – including that of a mall and a fast food restaurant. Some of the structures that failed are relatively new. They were certainly built after our building codes specified seismic resistance of up to Intensity IX. They might have been badly engineered. Or used substandard building materials.

The owner of the building that collapsed in Angeles City offered P150,000 remuneration for those killed in the collapse. That is a small amount to pay for the recklessness that led to this collapse. But the total amount will likely exceed whatever savings the contractor realized from using substandard steel bars.

It will take a little more time for us to fully account for the losses in lives due to the quake that hit Saranggani. But we should not waste any more time to allow obsolete steel factories to continue endangering lives.

This is a time of calamity that should embolden government to do what has long needed to be done. The obsolete steel plants that were allowed to be imported from China must be decommissioned immediately. They are a hazard by merely operating because of the air pollution they cause. They are a hazard to life and limb because the products they sell to the domestic market are unsafe.

The Philippines, unfortunately, sits along the Pacific Rim of Fire. We host more volcanos than we would want. We are squarely on the typhoon path. We live with more fault lines than anybody else.

We need firmer building regulations to protect our people from the natural hazards. We need to protect these regulations from the culture of corruption that engulfs our lives. Civil defense needs to be taken more seriously.