Rescuers race against time in search of 20 trapped in Angeles City building collapse

Rescuers are doing everything they can as over 20 individuals, mostly construction workers, remain trapped for more than 15 hours after a building under construction in Angeles City, Pampanga collapsed on Sunday.

According to Jonathan Andal’s report on “24 Oras Weekend,” authorities vowed that they will not stop with their search and rescue operations even if the sun has already set.

More than 40 construction workers were at the collapsed building in Barangay Balibago, the local government said. Over 20 individuals were rescued, while the rest are still trapped inside.

Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Vince Dizon and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) General Manager Nicolas Torre visited a portion of the construction site where two individuals were trapped.

Rescuers from the Bureau of Fire Protection said they were able to talk to the two trapped victims.

“They were given water. One of them said that there was elderly man near them, but BFP responders have yet to find him. We cannot simply rescue one of them because there’s a scaffolding pinning him,” said BFP officer-in-charge Wilberto Rico Kwan Tiu.

Meanwhile, a Malaysian tourist, who later died, was trapped in his hotel room next to the collapsed building.

Angeles City Mayor Carmelo Lazatin II said that it’s possible that the construction workers were sleeping when the incident happened.

Further, K-9 sniffing dogs of the Philippine Coast Guard, the volunteer group Metro Manila Dog Association, and the MMDA also helped in the search operations.

“We have a borescope; for small openings, we have a long microphone to hear possible signs of life. We also have a life detector, our heart beat monitor,” said Torre.

The DPWH also has heavy equipment, but it cannot be easily utilized due to the instability of the incident site.

“The site is very unstable. Because it’s still under construction, only scaffolding is supporting the debris. So we need to manually clear the debris. We don’t want to disturb the site because it could further collapse,” said Dizon.

The local government of Angeles City said that the building, which began construction in 2023, has all the necessary permits. However, they have yet to talk to the project’s contractor.

“We’ve been told that he is currently out of town. We are looking for him so we can talk with him. I hope he can send a representative to shed light on their building constructions, and at the same time, we want to get the list of those who are working at the site,” said Lazatin. —Vince Angelo Ferreras/LDF, GMA News