SENATOR Joel Villanueva on Tuesday urged the government to prioritize a bill promoting a safer workplace following the collapse of coping beam steel bar of a Skyway Stage 3 structure in Makati City.
The senator cited the lack of stricter regulations on occupational safety and health standards as a major factor leading to several accidents in the workplace.
“Incidents such as this recent collapse of structure in South Superhighway could have been avoided if we only have a stricter law that would penalize companies which are non-compliant of our country’s regulations on occupational safety and health standards,” said Villanueva, chairman of Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources.
Those injured were Norman Nicolas, Ronald Degano, Jerwin Deocareza, Jay-Ar Balaquidan and Guillermo Santos Jr., all workers of the DM Consunji Inc., the private contractor for the Skyway project.
They were rushed to the Ospital ng Maynila due to minor injuries.
Motorists and commuters from Southern Tagalog provinces going to the cities of Pasay, Manila and Makati experienced traffic jam for more than five hours following the collapse which happened around 9:45 a.m. near Cash and Carry Shopping Center.
The Southern Police District said the incident also caused the slow moving of traffic on both lanes of Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue and in the area of Magalllanes and Epifanio de los Santos Avenue intersection.
The collapsed steel bars also damaged two private vehicles—Toyota Avanza driven by Ernesto Castillo and Honda Jazz driven by Amelia Chue.
The DMCI management immediately apologized to the public.
“A portion of our rebar cage in Pier 23 of our Skyway extension project along Osmeña Highway [near Cash and Carry Mall] accidentally tipped over causing debris to fall over the north and south lanes,” the DMCI said in a statement.
“The minor accident is now causing heavy buildup of vehicles in the area. Five of our workers sustained scratches and minor injuries because of the accident while two private vehicles were slightly damaged.”©”©“
The company sent a three-man medical team to assist doctors attending the injured workers at the hospital.
“We are now attending to our workers and fast-tracking the clearing operations to make the affected portions of Osmeña Highway passable to motorists. We expect to clear the area by 3 p.m today.”©”© Our safety and technical personnel are also on site to investigate the cause of the accident. We are advising motorists to take alternate routes while our crew is clearing the area,” the DMCI added.
Villanueva is the author of Senate Bill No. 1317 or “An Act Strengthening Compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Standards and Providing Penalties for Violations Thereof” that seeks to amend the 41-year-old Labor Code of the Philippines which, at present, does not declare unlawful violations of OSHS.
For the longest time, violation of occupational health and safety standards has no fines or penalties.
The Department of Labor and Employment only issues a Work Stoppage Order if there is an imminent danger or would result to disabling injury.
Under the proposed measure, an amount of P100,000.00 will serve as an administrative penalty for the erring employer for every day of non-correction of violation while an amount ranging from P250,000.00 to P500,000.00 will be meted out if a worker dies.
“Neglecting to comply with occupational safety and health standards does not only pose risk to our workers but may also inconvenience other people as it could cause heavy traffic and even stop business transactions near the affected workplace,” Villanueva said.