Skyway Extension incident victims call for justice, assistance

Victims of the Skyway Extension Project steel girder collapse that killed one and injured four on Saturday are calling for justice and assistance.

The fatality is Edison Paquibot, a motorcycle rider who died of head trauma. He was set to celebrate his birthday on Sunday, November 22, and left behind a four-year-old child.

"Kailangan managot sila. I don't wish evil to anybody pero bakit yung asawa ko pa?" Paquibot's wife, Marilou, said in a report on GMA's "24 Oras Weekend" report on Sunday.

EEI Corporation, the private contractor for the Skyway Extension project, on Saturday said that a crane that was being positioned for its next task fell at 8:50 a.m., leading to one fatality and four injuries. The incident has pushed back the completion of the project to February 2021.

The company was reported to have shouldered Paquibot's hospital and funeral costs.

The other victims of the incident are also calling for the immediate release of assistance, which the private firm earlier vowed to provide.

"Sana 'wag nang patagalin kasi kung papatagalin nila, kawawa naman kami," a motorcycle rider, one of the victims, said. He was not identified in the report.

Another victim, a taxi driver whose vehicle was crushed in the incident and who was also not identified in the report, said he is hoping that the building contractor replaces his taxi.

Earlier on Sunday, San Miguel Corporation (SMC) president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang issued a personal apology.

Ang said that while EEI Corporation was in charge of handling the construction of the project, SMC has a responsibility to take care of the victims as the project proponent.

An inquest into the incident has already begun, with the crane operator facing raps on reckless imprudence resulting in homicide, multiple physical injuries, and damage to property

The Skyway Extension Project was initially scheduled to be completed by December this year, adding two northbound lanes and three southbound lanes. It will have a direct connection to Skyway 1, 2, and 3, and allow motorists from the south to head to NAIA, Makati, Manila, San Juan, Quezon City, and the NLEX without having to pass by Alabang and EDSA. — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/BM, GMA News