If it poses danger to residents. Barangay officials can stop construction, says city engineering

CEBU, Philippines - Barangay officials are empowered to stop any construction activity in their area if this poses danger to its constituents, so said City Engineer Josefa Ylanan.

Ylanan reminded barangay officials that City Ordinance No. 1481 gives village officers the power to “issue or not to issue a barangay clearance during construction.”

Since they are the ones who issue the clearance, Ylanan said they can also monitor the activity of the construction and can even withdraw their clearance if warranted.

“It’s just a matter of sa atong mga barangay officials to implement exactly what was in the order.

Makasulod na sila if they want to. So they can monitor every construction activity in the barangay,” Ylanan said.

A barangay clearance is a requirement for the issuance of a building permit.

“The barangay can seek assistance from the police. Sa akong nakita karon, mura'g less ang gamit sa atong mga barangay officials sa atong ordinance,” she said.

Ylanan said they also need the barangay officials to implement the ordinance because they do not have enough manpower to monitor all the construction activities in the city.

From the time she assumed office in July, Ylanan said there were no recorded complaints filed by the residents about the construction of a mall along N. Bacalso Avenue, where a part of the crane collapsed.

She said she heard from an architect who resides in the area that the complaints were directed to the contractors.

“Giatiman man sad daw kuno sila, so wala na lang sa una nila gipadala,” she said.

Ylanan asked residents who have issues with the ongoing construction activity to file a formal complaint with her office, so they can check and address them.

“Nituo man gud ko nga ang atong contractors, ang atong mga engineers are that professional. Kay og makita gud nato, kaning mga dinagko nga construction and I will repeat dili ta angay mahadlok because the owner of the building has his own engineer to supervise the construction.  The designer of the building has their own engineers to do also the supervision, including the contractors themselves,” Ylanan said.

While she is satisfied with the safety measures the construction of big buildings had put in place, she said accidents still happen.

“We have to minimize, if not, eradicate these incidents,” she said.

Ylanan also clarified that the collapsed crane was a crawler or mobile crane.

After the inspection done by the Office of the Building Officer (OBO), Ylanan received a report that the crane that collapsed was not a tower crane, but a smaller one called a crawler or mobile crane.

Based on the pictures that were shown to her, Ylanan concluded that it was an accident, and only the roofs of the houses nearby were hit.

One of the engineers of the city saw that the crane was trying to remove a pile, but the arm flipped when it was about to finish the transferring of the pile to the other side.

The suspension of the mall construction will be lifted once the firm can show to OBO it has taken care of its safety precautions, which is in compliance with the order of the labor department, Ylanan said. — Vania Mae Lim (FREEMAN)