THE NEW ILOILO CITY HALL BUILDING: COULD IT STAND STRONG AGAINST EARTHQUAKES?

Mayor Jed Mabilog may not be able to stand strong against the intensity of the issues raised against him involving the New City Hall Building. It is very clear the modifications introduced to the original project cost exceeded the limit as provided by law. The additional amount involved requires mandatory public bidding.

But this is not the topic that I am interested to discuss now. My question, COULD THE NEW ILOILO CITY HALL BUILDING STAND STRONG AGAINST EARTHQUAKES refers to natural earthquakes. I pose this question because a “shortcut” was made by people involved in this project. The Project is not covered by an Environmental Compliance Clearance fro EMB DENR. A mere Certificate of Non-Coverage was issued on the premise that the location is the site of the old city hall.

Looking into the combined floor area and the number of storeys of the new city hall, an ordinary person could easily say that it twice bigger, higher and several times heavier that the old one. The building is probably strong but does the holding capacity of the land underneath enough to hold the structure when earthquakes occur? Nobody could scientifically say yes. But why EMB-DENR allowed this to happen?

With “short cuts” made of securing CNC and not the ECC, the Iloilo City Government was not obliged to conduct a GEO-HAZARD ASSESSMENT / STUDY of the site where the city hall is now being constructed. This is a requirement for issuance of ECC and not required in the case of CNC.

If Mayor Jed could not stand strong against the legal and moral issues raised against him, it is Mayor Jed who will personally suffer. But if the New City Hall could not withstand with earthquakes that may hit our city, the lives of the employees, the public and the city officials in the city hall when a disaster happens will be in great danger.

The people of Iloilo must be assured that the new city hall is safe during earthquakes. The City Government needs to consider this as an urgent concern.