Who’s to blame for fallen structures?

Engineers and other professionals who inspected the rubble wrought by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” and the Bohol earthquake discovered that the steel and other building materials used to build the fallen structures were substandard. To put it directly, the steel were second-rate steel smuggled into the country and used to build structures in places like Tacloban City and Bohol.

Obviously, those in charge of constructing the structures did not follow the building code. Moreover, those in charge of implementing the building code were not doing a good job of ensuring that the building regulations were being followed.

The problem reaches the  Bureau of Customs too, which allowed, and most likely is still allowing, second-rate steel to be smuggled into the Philippines. This problem, the creation of a bevy of shady individuals committing a series of related mistakes, has resulted in horrifying tragedies.

Tragedies, because many lives perished due to the poorly constructed buildings.

The buildings in Bohol were  supposed to withstand a 7.9-magnitude earthquake; at least that was the building regulation in place in the province. But a 7.2-magnitude quake was able to completely demolish buildings. In Tacloban City, the supertyphoon did the same.

It’s hard not to go higher to find blame. Ultimately, it’s the president who is in charge and President Aquino must be aware of why these buildings were easily destroyed in these two tragedies. And now we are hearing of substandard bunkhouses being built for Yolanda survivors.

—ELISE DEE,

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