EDITORIAL - Don’t bring down the roof on our tourism efforts

Nine people were injured after the roof of a newly-opened food park in Barangay Maribago, Lapu-Lapu City, collapsed following heavy rains last Sunday night. Fortunately none of the injuries were life-threatening.

The food park was later found to have had multiple violations including not securing a building permit from the city’s Engineering Office aside from not having a fire exit.

Lapu-Lapu City officials also suspect substandard materials were used to build the roof, which was just made of transparent plastic, leading to the collapse. From what we saw in photos, the roof appeared to be just a plastic sheet stretched over a wooden frame.

Now one question is how was the food park able to open without securing the necessary permit? Also, did the contractor skimp on quality when it came to the design of the roof? And was there a great hurry to open the food park even as not everything was ready?

In any place here in the Philippines a food park is always a good idea to bring in customers; people like to try new food experiences and they like to share new experiences with friends, including those from foreign shores.

However, sometimes the idea can be brilliant but the execution can come up short. In this case how the roof was constructed and how the food park was designed and built.

New places for people to have new experiences whether it involves food and drinks, activities, culture, or anything else is always a good idea. But the owners, builders, and local officials should make sure that such places are safe and ready for occupancy and use.

This goes double for today’s times when we are trying to rebuild our tourism industry after a two-year drought. We don’t want to bring the roof down on such an effort.

We got lucky this time as only a few were hurt and mostly with minor injuries. But we can never tell about the next incident involving a place where people gather to supposedly experience something new.