3 Zamboanga City engineers face charges over school covered court collapse

THREE engineers of the Zamboanga City government have been placed on a 60-day preventive suspension as they face administrative charges over the collapse of a newly-built school covered court that left at nine students hurt. In a statement, Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar said the three — Romeo Hiso, Santiago Solis, Jr. and Sherwin Alan Rabago — have been found to be possibly liable for gross neglect of duty following the investigation on the incident at the Sinubong National High School covered court last June 24. Based on the formal charge filed by the mayor, Mr. Hiso, chief of the Construction and Maintenance Division, allegedly “failed to supervise the project engineer, review and check plans and specifications and conduct periodic inspection” of the covered court project” as well as “certified” the work accomplishment “in accordance with plans and specifications.” Mr. Solis, the project engineer of the covered court, allegedly “failed to supervise the work of the contractor to ensure that the steel trusses are properly welded, failed to conduct satisfactory field inspection, failed to review whether the actual structure complies with the plans, failed to ensure quality and structurally safe project and failed to properly rectify the structure after at least 3 complaints by the school principal.” Mr. Rabago, chief of the Material Testing and Quality Control Division, allegedly “failed to review whether the actual structure complies with the plans, and failed to properly rectify the structure after complaint by the principal.” Ms. Salazar said “the failure of the 3 engineers to act according to their mandated duties resulted to the collapse of the covered court… to the damage and prejudice of the City Government and the students injured.”