Work goes on in shipyard despite fatal accident

SUBIC, Zambales—A day after six workers were killed in an accident inside the Keppel Subic shipyard here on Friday, work continued in the facility, except in the accident site.

Company officials and representatives of the Department of Labor and Employment have also started inspecting the ship where the victims were working to determine what caused the accident.

The workers were repairing  MV Tombarra, a 22,650-ton container ship that can carry 6,350 cars, inside the shipyard when a steel platform collapsed on Friday. This killed six workers and injured seven others, as of Saturday, a company official said.

In a telephone interview, Mok Kim Whang, president of the Singaporean firm that runs the Keppel shipyard here, said the work stoppage was only in effect at the site of the accident.

“We have stopped repairs on the ship,” he said.

He said the 500 workers in the shipyard are working in different divisions. The company is repairing three ships here, including the vessel where the accident took place.

Employees working at the accident site were transferred to other areas in the shipyard as investigation started, he said.

In Manila, Malacañang wants an investigation on whether safety standards were violated in the Keppel shipyard incident.

“There are existing safety standards. So we are going to determine through the Department of Labor and Employment what really happened in Subic and if any safety standards were violated,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said over state-run radio station dzRB.

Lacierda agreed with the suggestion that while the country welcomes foreign investors, they should make sure they maintain high standards especially when it comes to the safety of their workers in the country.

“(Labor) Secretary (Rosalinda) Baldoz, upon learning of that incident, already ordered the investigation on the matter,” Lacierda said.

Whang said he had visited the relatives of the dead and injured victims, except those taken to a local hospital’s intensive care unit. “We will take care of them. We will take care of their present needs,” he said.

A report by the Subic police said the steel platform that was used as a bridge to the MV Tombarra collapsed, killing Jay Lord Reyes, Glen Miranda, Mark San Juan, Chrisander Papna, Ronald Lara and Ronal Bagay.

Police and hospital officials on Saturday confirmed that Ronal Bagay, one of the eight injured workers, died at 10:30 p.m. Friday.

Bagay’s death brought to six the total number of workers who died in the Keppel shipyard accident.

Reports said seven others—Alvin Peñeverde, Albert Ricaña, Belmore dela Vega, Eleazar Elopre, Wency May Balaba, Diosdado Motea, Berlindo Asinas—were hurt and taken to Our Lady of Lourdes International Hospital in Olongapo City.

Christine Bumanlag, wife of one of the fatalities, said company officials have yet to discuss with them any financial assistance or compensation package.

“But they’ve come here and brought us food,” she said. The P75,000 insurance coverage for each worker in the shipyard will not be enough to cover their needs, she said. “We’re dependent on [my husband]. I hope they also take care of the needs of our children,” she said.

Alfie Alipio, president of Samahan ng mga Manggagawa sa Hanjin Shipyard, an organization of workers at the Korean-owned Hanjin shipyard also in Subic, acknowledged that shipbuilding is “a high-risk job.”

“Laxity on safety measures turns a shipyard into a gravely dangerous zone,” Alipio said in a statement.

Precy Dagooc, secretary general of the Manggagawa para sa Kalayaan ng Bayan, said the deaths in the Keppel shipyard also put into the limelight the struggle for safety of Filipino workers at the shipyard of the Korean-owned Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Philippines Inc. here.

“If this accident could happen in a company (Keppel) that strictly implements health and safety rules how much more in Hanjin… whose laxity on health and safety implementation caused the death of four workers out of 28 serious accidents in the last five months,” Dagooc said in a statement.

The militant labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) called on the government to immediately investigate the accident.

KMU chair Elmer Labog said his group would also send a fact-finding mission and accused the shipyard’s management of trying to suppress information about the accident.

“Justice must be immediately served for the victims of the Keppel shipyard incident and their families,” Labog said in a statement.

“Our members in Central Luzon are telling us that there are attempts by the Keppel management to suppress information on the incident. We condemn such attempts,” Labog said.

“Even as we embark on a fact-finding mission, we also demand that the labor department and other concerned agencies immediately release official reports on the cause of the incident. There’s a big possibility that Keppel is penny-pinching on implementing occupational health and safety standards,” he added. Robert Gonzaga, Inquirer Central Luzon, with reports from Norman Bordadora and Philip C. Tubeza in Manila