City High buildings vacated due to ‘risky’ flooring defects

By: Emme Rose Santiagudo

The Iloilo City Engineer’s Office (CEO) has instructed the assistant principal of the Iloilo City National High School (ICNHS) in Molo district to temporarily vacate two buildings of the school after defects on the flooring and slabs were observed during a pre-assessment on Monday.

According to CEO Structural Engineer Cloyd Grecia, their team observed defects “leading to failure” on the flooring and the slabs of the two units of two-storey buildings of ICNHS.

“Sa flooring and slabs, may nakita nga signs of defect leading to failure so our initial instruction to the assistant principal was kon pwede i-vacate temporarily until ma-repair ukon ma-resolve ang issue regarding design and construction,” he said in an interview on Monday.

The two buildings, which were built way back in 2015, houses 12 classrooms.

While the structural integrity of the building is generally okay, Grecia said immediate repair is needed since the defective and dilapidated slabs will likely fall during earthquakes.

“Dilapidated na ang slabs and may tendency mahulog so let us not wait nga ma failure pa siya before mag recommend nga ivacate,” he added.

Grecia said they will endorse a recommendation to the city mayor and the implementing agencies for the immediate repair of the two buildings.

The composite team led by CEO has been tasked by Mayor Jerry Treñas to inspect the structural integrity of the key buildings in the city following the series of earthquake that jolted Mindanao recently.

The team made up of representatives from CEO, Office of the Building Official (OBO), City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) will have to submit the findings and recommendations of their series of inspection and submit their report to the mayor.

Recently, the composite team already inspected the City Hall and Fort San Pedro National High School where they observed no major defects.

They are set to inspect other key buildings and other schools in the city namely, Jaro NHS, Mandurriao NHS, A. Mirasol Memorial Elem School, LaPaz NHS, Jalandoni NHS, and Ramon Avancena NHS in the coming weeks.