DENR to demolish building near City Hall

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has approved in principle the request of the Cebu City Government to demolish the structure beside Gotiaco Building and across the Cebu City Hall so the area may be used for other purposes.

The same building also poses danger to the occupants since it has already been condemned by the Office of the Building Official which found it to be structurally unsafe.

Assistant City Administrator Dominic Diño said they met with DENR officials last week where they were told that the environment department, which owns the building and the lot, has no objection to the city government’s intention.

Diño said the DENR is in fact in the process of preparing the documents required for securing a permit to demolish.

He said that DENR was alarmed by the findings of engineering department which declared the building highly susceptible to collapse when subjected to higher intensities of seismic activity such as earthquake.

The Structural Investigation and Assessment confirmed by Engr. Ariel L. dela Cruz found during inspection that a large portion of the building showed signs of being unfit for occupancy.

“The concrete walls and columns showed signs of spalling, cracking and disintegration. Reinforcements are already exposed to weather conditions therefore corrosive formations are visible,” the assessment reads.

 “Spalling and delamination of concrete coupled with rebar corrosion affects the lateral resistance of the structure when subjected to high seismic activity (earthquake) since it will break the concrete abruptly leaving no time for existing occupants (vendors) to seek safer grounds,” the assessment further stated.

Dela Cruz recommended the demolition of the entire structure over major retrofitting because the latter is more costly than building a new one.

“Leaving the building structure on its present state will further lead to deterioration and accelerate structural failure of which there is no specific timeframe or accurate engineering prediction as to when it will collapse,” he stated.

The structure is currently occupied by informal settlers as dwellings, garage and warehouse.

The Office of the Building official also declared it as a fire hazard because the wirings are not properly installed.

The building has four blocks of warehouses covering almost 3,000 square meters of National Government-owned lot. – (FREEMAN)