In the early hours of Monday, rescuers in a northern Philippine city successfully extracted two workers from the ruins of a nine-story hotel that collapsed during construction. This tragic incident has resulted in three confirmed fatalities, while 17 individuals remain unaccounted for, according to official reports.
One of the workers was found deceased, and despite the relentless efforts of emergency teams to revive the other, he succumbed to his injuries in an ambulance near the precarious pile of concrete, iron, and scaffolding that comprised the building’s remains in Angeles City, Pampanga Province.
Journalists, including those from The Associated Press, observed the intense rescue operation. Hundreds of rescuers, led by firefighters and police, worked tirelessly for hours to reach the trapped workers, who were initially alive but imprisoned beneath heavy debris.
In a desperate bid to save one worker’s life, rescuers attempted to administer water and medication intravenously amidst the sweltering summer heat, as described by Brig. Gen. Jess Mendez, the regional police chief, to the AP.
“Tragically, he did not survive despite all the efforts,” Mendez stated.
The third victim was identified as a Malaysian tourist staying at a budget inn that was partially struck by the fallen debris from the collapsed structure. Another guest at the inn sustained injuries but was able to escape, officials confirmed.
A day after the unfinished building collapse with a loud crashing sound after a fierce thunderstorm, Angeles City Mayor Carmelo Lazatin said rescue efforts would still not be shifted to a body retrieval operation.
“My best hope is that we can rescue more people alive,” Lazatin told the AP. “We don’t want to give the families of the trapped workers any bad news.”
Anxiety and fear among relatives of the trapped workers, who are waiting in sheds near the rubble, have deepened.
“I’m losing hope because of what I see— slow rescue work,” said Lea Mendoza Casilao, a 47-year-old sardine factory worker whose boyfriend, a mason, was among those still trapped in the rubble.
She brought a week’s supply of rice and sardines for him at the construction site, but she said they would never meet as scheduled over the weekend after the building where he was sleeping crumbled before dawn on Sunday.
Lazatin said rescuers were moving carefully because huge slabs of concrete were being held up precariously by a tangle of aluminum scaffoldings and could crash down on rescuers.
Twenty-six workers were either rescued or managed to run out of the collapsing building, where they slept on pieces of plywood on the ground floor. Of the 17 workers still missing, one has been located but has yet to be extricated from the rubble, officials said.
National police chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said his force will support an “ongoing investigation to determine the cause of the incident and possible violations of safety and building regulations.”
Angeles City hosted one of the largest U.S. Air Force bases outside of the American mainland, helping turn Angeles and outlying cities and towns into entertainment and commercial hubs in the main northern Philippine region of Luzon.
Clark Air Base, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Manila, closed in the early 1990s.
The former American base has become a bustling industrial and tourism enclave called the Clark Freeport Zone, and is still surrounded by remnants of U.S. base-era red-light strips, bars, nightclubs, tattoo shops and budget hotels.
