2 die as church wall collapses

Two construction workers were crushed to death when a concrete wall of a church they were working on collapsed yesterday morning in Valenzuela City.

Senior Superintendent Oscar Paginado, Valenzuela City police officer-in-charge (OIC), identified the fatalities as Ricardo Oser, 26, and Vicente Militante, 40.

The victims were reportedly employed by People’s Asia Pacific Construction Corp. which is doing construction works at the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints along Maysan Road in the city.

At about 9:50 a.m. yesterday, Oser and Militante were reportedly removing the scaffolding of the just constructed concrete wall inside the church when it accidentally caved in pinning the two workers.

Joint rescue efforts by the city police, the local fire bureau, and the rescue team from the city jail, took almost an hour before the workers were pulled out from the rubble, Inspector Salvador de la Cruz, city police Station Investigation Branch (SIB) chief, said.

The rescuers rushed the duo to the Valenzuela City General Hospital but they were pronounced dead on arrival.

Meanwhile, another construction worker was found dead with multiple stab wounds in different parts of his body by another worker in a construction site inside the R. Lapid Warehouse at ECIC Compound, Service Road, Barangay Lawang Bato, Valenzuela City.

Noel Carloy, 26, told police that he found Cesar Benitez, 31, of Ibabaw Street, Barangay Lawa, Meycauayan, Bulacan, dead inside their quarters at about four in the morning.

Witnesses, however, said the victim was last seen alive at about 3:30 a.m. in a drinking bout with fellow construction workers identified as Norlito Pino, Allan Bellama, Totie Casaldan and Carloy.

Police placed Carloy, Pino and Bellama under tactical interrogation while Casaldan is now the subject of a police manhunt as he reportedly went into hiding after the incident was reported to the police.

In Binondo, Manila, a barangay kagawad (councilor) and a barangay tanod (watchman) were seriously wounded after their barangay hall was attacked by a gunman aboard a motorcycle yesterday morning.

Police identified the victims as kagawad Rodolfo Ledesma and tanod Edgar Reufremio, both of Barangay 275, Zone 25.

According to a report from the Binondo Police Station, the gunman arrived aboard the motorcycle driven by another unidentified suspect in front of the barangay hall along Claro M. Recto Avenue and Del Pan street at about 9:00 a.m.

Immediately, the gunman alighted from the motorcycle and went inside the hall where the victims were. Without warning, the gunman whipped out a caliber .38 revolver and shot the victims at close range. – Pete Laude, Jerry Botial and Mike Frialde