3 workers killed in 2 new Hanjin accidents in Subic

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT, Philippines -- At least three workers were added to the list of victims of work-related deaths at the country’s largest shipbuilding facility here.

Neil Mojica and Eduardo Molina, both residents of Barangay (village) Balaybay in Castillejos, Zambales, died shortly before 11 p.m. Monday when a crane they were moving to another location fell on them, reports from the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority showed.

Investigators of the SBMA’s ecology center said the two, who worked as sling men for a subcontractor at the shipbuilding facility of Hanjin Heavy Industries Corp. Philippines (HHIC), were removing the shackles from the crane when it cranes snapped from its trestle and pinned them.

Mojica and Molina were killed instantly.

At least two other workers, whom the SBMA did not identify, were hurt and taken to a local hospital.

Ameth dela Llana-Coval, head of the SBMA ecology department, said their preliminary investigation showed that before the accident, a worker told a colleague that the trestles on which the collapsed part of the crane rested “were not properly on the level.”

Former Zambales vice governor Ramon Lacbain II, head of Task Force Hanjin, a citizen's group monitoring the operations of the company, said the third fatality died from another accident Tuesday morning.

Lacbain said the worker, Angelo Banaag, died at the James L. Gordon Hospital while undergoing treatment.

Banaag was taken to the hospital after falling from a roof, Lacbain said.

The latest accident brings to five the total number of work-related deaths at the South Korean-owned facility over the last three months.

On January 18, an explosion killed two welders and injured three others.

The SBMA found Hanjin guilty of violating at least seven safety standards and ordered the company to comply with international safety standards.

Task Force Hanjin also accused the firm of violating the occupation and safety standards of the country.

Lacbain said his group has documented at least nine work-related deaths at Hanjin since 2006.

He said Reynan Loquinario, 25, died on December 24 last year when he fell on the road together with several steel pipes loaded on a truck.

A Korean, was reportedly driving the truck when the accident happened.

Another accident happened in the second week of January when another worker was run over by a truck but the victim remained unidentified, he said.

“We reiterate our call for President [Gloria] Macapagal-Arroyo to create an independent body to determine violations by Hanjin and their subcontractors of safety standards so that appropriate actions can be taken and avoid further deaths and accidents,” Lacbain told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net).

“The families of the victims deserve justice not only in terms of monetary compensation but also in holding accountable those who have failed in enforcing international safety standards [at the facility],” he said.
By Ansbert Joaquin - Northern Luzon Bureau and Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon

ABSCBN NEWS on the fatal accidents at Hanjin Subic.
Olongapo-Subic Welders blog

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Two workers killed in another Hanjin 'freak' accident


Two workers of a shipbuilding facility were killed after a 15-ton solid steel frame collapsed and fell on them while working at a steel stockyard of a Korean-owned Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Corporation (HHIC) in Sitio Agusuhin, Barangay Cawag in Subic, Zambales before dawn Monday, ABS-CBN News learned Tuesday.


The report said police identified the victims as Neil Mojica and Eduardo Molina, both employees of Globe Distribution Services (Subic) Inc. in Subic Bay Freeport Zone (SBFZ) and who were residents of Balaybay Resettlement in Castillejos, Zambales.


Investigations disclosed that at about 11:45 in the evening, Mojica and Molina, both assigned as "Sling men" at Quay Wall steel stockyard of Hanjin facility, were standing on top of a 15-tonner girder steel frame operated by a crane while victims were removing its shackles after it was placed horizontally on a trestle about 8-feet high from the ground.


Another worker Orlando Aguirre, a signal man on site, ordered the crane operator to hoist the boom after the shackles were removed when suddenly the steel frame measuring about 40-foot long and 6 feet high collapsed and fell pinning the victims on the ground.


Both the victim's bodies were crashed on the concrete pavement facing down. The two were killed instantly.


A worker told investigators when he was about to leave the area that he witnessed the trestle where the 15-ton steel frame was placed was not actually leveled. He pointed it out to other co-workers but it was too late, he said.


In less than two months, Five workers have been killed while working inside Hanjin's shipbuilding facility in the Redondo Peninsula in Subic, Zambales where a recent terrible accident occurred last January 17 this year killing two workers after a section of the ship they were working on suddenly exploded.


The bodies of Mojica and Molina were brought to Flores Funeral parlor in Barangay Mabayuan, Olongapo City for autopsy.


Meanwhile, officials from the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) are now investigating the incident and may reportedly recommend the suspension of HHIC for another deadly accident.

A separate report received by ABS-CBN News said that HHIC-Phil general manager Pyeong Jong Yu, in a letter to the SBMA Tuesday, expressed "deepest regrets over another tragic accident" and said the company will "exert every means to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents."


He said Hanjin will also ask the subcontractor to settle "amicably and fairly" with the families of the victims as soon as possible.