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SUBIC
BAY FREEPORT—The shipyard venture in the Philippines of
one of the world’s largest shipbuilders now hangs in the
balance after another worker died in an accident over
the weekend, the result of what authorities here said
were “easily avoidable” safety lapses in the
shipbuilding facility.
During a
sudden downpour at about 4:00 p.m. on Friday, several
workers assigned to the form shop of Hanjin Heavy
Industries & Construction Corp. Ltd.’s (Hanjin Heavy
Construction) civil works department took shelter under
a metal formwork at a dry-dock construction site inside
the shipyard of sister unit Hanjin Heavy Industries
Corp.-Philippines, or Hanjin Heavy-Philippines.
The
metal structure collapsed due to strong winds, according
to a report by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, or
SBMA, over the weekend.
Earthmovers and dump trucks
appear like toys against the hilly Redondo Peninsula,
illustrating the magnitude of development that Hanjin
Heavy-Philippines undertakes for Phase 2 of its
$1.6-billion shipyard in Subic. Construction activities
grounded to a halt over the weekend as the Subic Bay
Metropolitan Authority issued a cease-and-desist order
to Construction Corp. Ltd., a sister company of
Philippines, following another fatal accident in the
shipyard. -- Henry
Empeño
The
incident—the latest in a string of fatal accidents at
Hanjin Heavy Philippines’ shipyard since February last
year—killed Mario Atrero, a 52-year-old worker from
Candelaria, Zambales, who was employed by Hanjin Heavy
Construction, the company doing construction work at the
shipyard.
Four
others, all from the province of Zambales, were
seriously injured. They were Joel Alido and Leody Abad
of Palauig town, Darvin Silva of San Antonio and David
Alcayaga of Castillejos.
It was
apparently one accident too many, however—even for the
SBMA, which previously fended off criticisms against the
projects here of South Korea’s Hanjin group, Subic’s
single-biggest investor to date.
Minutes
after learning of the latest mishap from a Hanjin
Heavy-Philippines official, SBMA Administrator Armand
Arreza ordered the immediate suspension of construction
activities at the shipyard.
“The
[safety] situation at the shipyard has become alarming,”
Arreza said on Friday as news broke out about the latest
casualty.
A week
earlier, two separate accidents had killed two other
shipyard workers, prompting the SBMA to issue a notice
of violation to Hanjin Heavy Philippines on Monday after
investigations were completed.
The
fatal accidents, occurring within days of each other,
Arreza noted, “tended to bunch up.”
This
somehow suggested that Hanjin Heavy-Philippines and/or
its subcontractors have not responded appropriately to
warnings and safety requirements issued by the SBMA.
Neither, it appears, have the Koreans heeded the lessons
from each mishap in the shipyard.
According to a brief from the SBMA, Friday’s tragedy has
raised the body count at Hanjin Heavy-Philippines’
shipyard to 12, or two fatalities less than the count
made by Task Force Hanjin, a community organization that
monitors the operations of Hanjin Heavy-Philippines.
The
authority’s list showed five fatalities under shipyard
operations, and seven—including Atrero—under
construction operations.
Of the
12 cases, three deaths involved vehicular accidents,
another three involved workers that fell off rooftops
and two figured in an explosion that was traced to a
leaking oxygen hose. But the leading cause of death,
according to the brief, was the collapse of steel beams
or metal structures that took four lives, including the
incident on Friday.
Worse,
sources at the SBMA’s Occupational Health and Safety
Division (OHSD) said, is that most of the accidents
could have been easily avoided “if only shipyard
managers imposed common-sense safety measures.”
In the
incident Friday, a barricade around the metal
formwork—an easily recognizable symbol for a hazardous
work area—could have discouraged workers from going near
it.
“There
was no reason for [the workers] to be there,” said a
member of the OHSD investigating team. “Had there been a
barricade or even an ‘authorized personnel only’ sign in
the area, the accident could not have happened.”
These
safety lapses, Arreza said, led the SBMA to get tough
lately with Hanjin as well as its subcontractors who
were found to have been remiss in implementing safety
requirements at the shipyard.
Last
week the SBMA recommended the termination of contracts
of three such subcontracting firms, Arreza said. The
move is expected to be approved by the SBMA board this
week.
He
identified the subcontractors as Trigon/Bodahh Inc.,
employer of a worker who fell off the roof of a building
on March 11; Globe Distribution Services, which hired
two workers that were later pinned to death by a metal
beam that collapsed on March 10; and DMK/Philnorkor,
whose worker fell from a moving truck in December last
year.
Similarly, Hanjin Heavy-Philippines and Hanjin Heavy
Construction began to get a taste of the SBMA’s
get-tough policy because of the nagging safety issue at
its shipyard.
In two
cases of fatal mishaps last year, operations at the job
sites were temporarily suspended for one day. This year
the SBMA had already issued three separate notices of
violation to Hanjin Heavy Construction, as well as two
cease-and-desist orders (CDOs).
Moreover, Arreza said two days before the latest
accident that SBMA officials, along with Undersecretary
Lourdes Melicor-Transmante of the Department of Labor
and Employment (DOLE) and Dulce Estrella-Gust, executive
director of the DOLE’s Occupational Safety and Health
Center, have mapped out safety guidelines meant for
Hanjin group’s implementation in Subic.
Among
the measures the Koreans must adhere to include the
third-party quality audit of all shipyard equipment and
safety performance, as well as the creation of an
interagency occupational health and safety superbody at
the shipyard and weekly submission of job-safety and
occupational-health reports to the SBMA.
With the
guidelines, the SBMA also on Wednesday issued a notice
for Hanjin Heavy Construction to complete all the
occupational health and safety requirements within 30
days—or face the suspension of all operations, including
both construction and shipbuilding activities.
As it
turned out, another death Friday would force the hand of
SBMA to suspend construction work at the shipyard
earlier than the deadline.
While
the target of SBMA’s latest CDO was HCCL, which
undertakes facilities construction at the sprawling
Hanjin Heavy-Philippines shipyard, the freeze order also
affects Hanjin Heavy-Philippines the shipyard operator,
which relies on its sister company—the construction
unit—to complete Phase 2 of the shipyard venture by the
second half of 2008.
The
expansion program entrusted to Hanjin Heavy
Construction, according to company announcements
earlier, is designed to increase Hanjin
Heavy-Philippines’ shipbuilding capacity from the
present 220,000 tons per year to 450,000 tons.
It would
also enable the firm to compete with rivals and
compatriots Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy
Industries and Daewoo Heavy Industries. The competition
apparently spurred the furious pace of construction and
shipbuilding at Subic and, on a positive note, enabled
Hanjin Heavy-Philippines to complete its first
shipbuilding project here at least six months ahead of
schedule.
Last
month Hanjin Heavy-Philippines announced the successful
sea trial of the first ship manufactured out of the
Subic shipyard—the MV Argolikos, which is due for
delivery to its Greek owner Dioryx Maritime Corp., next
month.
After
Argolikos, at least 35 more vessels are scheduled to be
built here by Hanjin Heavy-Philippines, including eight
postpanamax vessels the company said would be among the
biggest box ships ever to be built.
However,
the momentum for this billion-dollar project is now
threatened by “safety lapses.”
As in
the past, officials of Hanjin Heavy-Philippines told the
SBMA they would abide by all the requirements imposed by
authorities.
The SBMA
said the lifting of the suspension, along with the
accompanying losses to the company, would now depend on
how fast Hanjin Heavy-Philippines could right its record
of wrongs. This time the inaction of Hanjin
Heavy-Philippines may prove fatal to its $1.6-billion
investment in Subic, the same way the bell tolled for
the 12 workers who perished at its shipyard here. |
