Ecozone officials draw fire over shipyard mishap

THE Philippine Economic Zone Administration was blamed by the Occupational Safety and Health Center for being overprotective of foreign firms at Subic Freeport and not allowing safety inspections that could had prevented the accident that led to the death of six steel workers hired by Keppel Shipyard.

Dr. Ma. Theresa Cucueco, executive director of OSHC, confronted PEZA deputy director Mary Harriet Abordo for ignoring a memorandum of agreement between the two agencies for the conduct of regular safety inspections in the special economic zone. The inspections are meant to ensure that foreign firms adhere to national standards on worker protection.

Labor and Employment undersecretary Lourdes Transmonte also accused PEZA officials of impeding investigation on the October 7 accident when a steel ramp collapsed and fell on the workers.

Transmonte said Idelmira Pestio, chief of Peza Subic Shipyard Economic Zone, did not allow the DOLE regional office to enter the Keppel premises to conduct an investigation on the mishap, on the pretext that PEZA has already done its own investigation “and that was enough”.

Even the Zambales provincial police was not able to look into the accident site as “the scene was already tainted” when they were allowed to proceed by PEZA and shipyard security to document the incident.

“Equipment and materials have been moved and debris was already cleared. We may not have engineering expertise to determine the cause of neglect but if we could have documented the site properly, we all won’t be left in the dark,” P/Ssupt. Francisco Santiago said.

Francisco expressed surprised when a witness, Fernando San Juan, father of a fatality, spoke during the hearing and said a feeble tower arm was used to support the 166.5-ton ramp of the ship instead of the high capacity dock crane. –Rey T. Salita, Manila Standard Today