City Hall is safe and sturdy – engineers

By: Emme Rose Santiagudo

The Iloilo City Hall is structurally safe and sound, according the City Engineer’s Office (CEO).

This was the result of the inspection conducted by a composite team on Wednesday.

CEO Structural Engineer Cloyd Grecia said the minor cracks on non-structural components of the Iloilo City hall building were normal; hence, there is nothing to worry about.

“Nakita naton minor, superficial cracks nga indi man significant sa structural integrity sang building,” he said in an interview on Thursday.

The non-structural components of the building include the ceilings, windows, doors and partitions, while structural components are the beams and foundations, among others.

Mayor Jerry Treñas formed the team composed of the CEO, Office of the Building Official (OBO), City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP). He then tasked them to inspect the structural integrity of the City Hall building on Thursday following the series of earthquake that jolted Mindanao recently.

According to Grecia, they decided to involve the BFP and the CDRRMO in the general inspection of exits, sprinklers, and other components that are also relevant to earthquakes.

“Nakabase siya sa memorandum ni mayor pero gin-upod na lang namon ang fire kag CDRRMO kay kon tan-awon naton ang major directives is structural integrity pero during earthquakes involved man ang fire, aton exits, ano ang kondisyon sang aton sprinklers, para general na lang,” he said.

Grecia said they only conducted visual and physical inspection since there was no major damage on the City Hall’s structural integrity.

“First step naton is visual/physical appearance, kon may makita kita nga defects especially sa structural component may ara pa gid kita series of inspection and evaluation. Since, we only observed minor cracks indi na kami magproceed for the strength evaluation kay wala man kita may nakita nga damage,” he added.

Overall, the City Hall building is structurally safe and sound, according to Grecia.

Based on data they gathered, the City Hall was structurally designed to withstand magnitude 8 earthquakes.

“The general status is safe and good. In fact, it already experienced three earthquakes and several typhoons,” Grecia said.

The composite team will consolidate the findings and recommendations of their inspection and submit their report to the mayor on Monday.

After inspecting the city hall, the composite team is set to conduct inspections on the structural integrity of secondary schools next week.

Following the series of earthquakes that hit several parts of the country recently, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD-6) required the 2 highly urbanized cities, 14 component cities, and 117 municipalities in Western Visayas to submit assessment reports on the structural integrity of infrastructures in their areas.