Correspondent

SUBIC BAY—Noting the failure by subcontractors to implement even commonsense safety measures that would have prevented the recent fatal accidents at the Hanjin shipyard here, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) on Thursday said it would close down companies found to disregard safety requirements at the jobsite.

SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza issued the stern warning even as Malacañang on Wednesday cleared Hanjin Heavy Industries Corp. (HHIC-Phil.) of liabilities in the two separate job-related accidents at the company’s Redondo Peninsula shipyard.

The first case involved two sling men who were pinned to death by a toppling 15-ton steel beam on Monday night. The second involved a worker who fell off a roof the following morning.

The three fatalities were employed by two different subcontractors for Hanjin, the South Korean company which is scheduled to deliver in June the first ship ever to be made in Subic.

Arreza said in a statement on Thursday that subcontractors working at various jobsites in the shipyard should adhere strictly to requirements on occupational safety or face immediate closure.

“We will be going after these companies [which] show utter disregard for safety,” Arreza vowed. “Once we establish their culpability, we’ll throw all the books at them,” he said.

According to HHIC-Phil., the first accident occurred when two “sling men” were removing shackles atop a 15-ton beam, which was just offloaded from a ship, for eventual assembly into an overhead crane.

When the assisting worker signaled the crane operator to retract the cable from the beam, one of the shackles might have caught in one of the brackets beside the lifting lug, the HHIC-Phil. accident report indicated.

This might have caused the 40-foot long steel beam to turn and topple, the accident report said.

The two fatalities, identified as Neil Mojica and Eduardo Molina, and the signalman were all employed by subcontractor Globe Distribution Services.

On the other hand, the crane operator worked for Subic Shipbuilder Inc., another subcontractor at the Hanjin shipyard.

In the second case, an employee of another subcontractor, Bodahh Inc., reportedly fell off a nine-meter roof after failing to notice that he was at the roof edge. 

The worker, who was reportedly moving backward to mark places on the roof where screws had to be bolted on by another worker, was wearing a safety harness, but this was not properly secured, investigators said.

Arreza said the ongoing investigation tend to show that some subcontractors and their workers “failed to observe even commonsense safety measures.”

“Every industrial jobsite is a potential safety hazard, that’s why there are clear-cut rules on safety that we require companies to implement strictly,” he said.

He added that HHIC-Phil. president Jeong Sup Shim had assured him of Hanjin’s support to the investigation, with the end in view of identifying erring subcontractors and taking appropriate actions against them.

The move to nail down erring subcontractors followed Malacañang’s statement on Wednesday that Hanjin is not liable for the accidents that occurred in its facility.

The statement, attributed to Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, said the subcontractors, and not Hanjin itself, undertook the operations that led to the workers’ deaths.

The recent accidents occurred less than two months after three other workers died in a fire on January 18 while working inside the propeller shaft of a ship under construction. Investigation showed that the fire was caused by leaking oxygen that was ignited by sparks coming from a grinding machine. 

The price of dressed chicken should not be more than P100 a kilogram (kg) at the retail level since farm- gate prices have even gone down in recent weeks, according to poultry raisers.

SUBIC BAY—Noting the failure by subcontractors to implement even commonsense safety measures that would have prevented the recent fatal accidents at the Hanjin shipyard here, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) on Thursday said it would close down companies found to disregard safety requirements at the jobsite.

THE National Food Authority (NFA) disclosed that Hanoi has committed to deliver some 10,000 metric tons (MT) of rice to the Philippines under the East Asia Emergency Rice Reserve (EAERR).

Since the 2005 World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial conference in Hong Kong, the Philippines—as a key member of the so-called G-20 and Nama 11—has maintained that negotiations for new multilateral trade modalities should be sequential with agriculture going ahead first, followed by industrial goods and services.

KABASALAN, Zamboanga Sibugay—A small group of municipal fishermen-turned-fish-cage operators in this town are going big time with their innovative livelihood projects, transforming their community into an ecotourism destination with the support of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

KABALASAN, Zamboanga, Sibugay—if you happen to see a bottled calamansi juice in the market, check the label and most probably, the nutritious, ready-to-drink beverage was manufactured by the Nazareth Women’s Association from this chiefly calamansi-producing town. 

KABASALAN, Zamboanga Sibugay—Agrarian-reform beneficiaries who took over the 920-hectare rubber plantation of Philippine Rubber Project Co. Inc. in this town have found more opportunities for work.