Rescuers in the Philippines were racing against time on Monday in a search for signs of life more than 24 hours after a building under construction collapsed in the city of Angeles.
The painstaking manual operation around 80 kilometres north of the capital, Manila, underscored the difficulty of the rescue effort, being carried out in scorching heat.
Teams are carefully removing rocks and debris by hand, with authorities unable to rely on excavators and other heavy machinery for fear that the unstable structure could shift further and bury any survivors deeper under the rubble.
As the delicate search operation stretched into a second day, families waiting near the disaster area voiced growing frustration and despair, saying they had received no information about the fate of their missing loved ones.
“My youngest child keeps asking but I do not have answers,” said Lea Casilao, 47, whose husband, a construction worker, is believed to be trapped. “If only the rescuers could call out his name, he might still respond, so I'd have something to hold on to, some hope,” she added, wiping away her tears.
Search teams, assisted by specialised working dogs, continue to comb through the debris after overnight thermal scans detected heartbeats and breathing.
Rescuers placed flexible tubes to channel air into pockets among the tangle of concrete, mangled metal and collapsed scaffolding.
Nearby, Noby Batar pleaded for news of her husband, Emmanuel, who is believed to be buried under the pile of concrete and steel. “Manny, if you're not among the dead, please just show yourself,” said Batar, with her daughter, Stephanie, crying beside her. “We're here and we don't know whether you're alive or not. This is so difficult for us because we don't know what to do.”
Stephanie added: “Give us a sign, we love you very much.”
Inquiry under way
As rescuers pulled another body from the rubble, officials raised the death toll to four, with 17 others still missing. One of two retrieved earlier had a pulse but later died, said Maria Leah Sajili, fire protection information officer, while another suffered cardiac arrest while trapped under the rubble. Ms Sajili said many more could be trapped.
Among those who died was a 65-year-old Malaysian citizen whose body was recovered on Sunday from a neighbouring hotel building that had also been affected by the collapse. Officials said an investigation was now under way into what caused the collapse of the multistorey building and they are trying to find the building owner to get some answers, including clarity on the number of workers at the site.
Planning records showed the building that collapsed was intended as a nine-storey condominium-hotel under the approved permit, though a swimming pool was being built on an additional 10th floor, authorities confirmed. Geraldine Panlilio, regional director of the Department of Labour and Employment, told DZMM radio the agency issued a work stoppage order at the site last September, after inspectors had found numerous breaches of occupational health and safety standards. The order was lifted a month later after the company complied.
