Police said the body of Arnel Ramos, of Tondo, was retrieved under the rubble only yesterday morning, some 12 hours after residents heard of a loud rumble at the demolition site.
The residents, however, ignored the sound since it was a nightly occurrence at the site. Officer-on-case SPO1 Richard Lumbad said the victim died from multiple body injuries.
According to the victim’s father Jorge, he last saw his son alive last Wednesday evening as he was on his way to the demolition site at a compound along Tecson street in Tondo.
The victim often gathered steel bars at the compound for sale to junk shops.
Lumbad said the victim was still holding a mallet and a steel saw when the body was found.
The victim could had been cutting off the steel bars at the base of the 17-foot concrete post when it collapsed, Lumbad said.
Meanwhile, police are now investigating the criminal liability of a housing tenant whose glass jalousie fell from her fourth floor window and hit a seven-year-old girl below, resulting in her death.
The parents of victim Janine Alexis Ortiz sought police assistance yesterday after the owner of a unit of a housing project in Balut, Tondo continued to ignore their appeal for financial aid.
Jacklyn, the victim’s mother, told investigators that her daughter was playing on the ground floor of Building 20 of the Paradise Heights housing project when a broken glass jalousie fell and pierced her daughter’s head last week.
The victim died while being treated at the Tondo General Hospital. – Nestor Etolle