Makati Mayor Abigail Binay on Friday ordered the Office of the Building Official to conduct a rigorous inspection of all elevators in Makati City buildings to ensure their compliance with the safety requirements as provided for in the National Building Code of the Philippines.
The order came after an elevator at the Philippine Bank of Communications Tower located on Ayala Avenue malfunctioned late Thursday night, causing it to freefall from the 10th floor to the ground at an abnormal speed.
JC Roldan, a Building Management System operator at PBCom, also claimed the emergency brake was not working.
At least 14 persons were hurt in the incident.
Eleven of those are employees of Huawei Company, nine of them Chinese nationals while two others are Malaysians.
“I would like to reiterate to building owners and administrators that it is their responsibility to ensure that all elevators in their building are well-maintained,” Binay said.
The city chief executive said it was the responsibility of the building owners and administrators to ensure the safety of every person inside the building.
The first responders to the incident were ambulances from Makati Search and Rescue Team and its clusters, Poblacion Rescue, Bangkal Rescue, San Isidro Rescue, Valenzuela Rescue and San Lorenzo Rescue, and the Philippine Red Cross.
According to the Makati Command Control and Communication Center (C3), they received a telephone call from Roldan at 10:54 p.m. informing them of the incident and requesting assistance for 17 elevator passengers who suffered from dizziness and sustained minor injuries.
C3 reported that some of the victims are Filipino and Chinese employees of Huawei Technology and the others are call center employees.
They were brought to the Makati Medical Center and Ospital ng Makati because of lower back and knee pains, among other complaints.
Other victims brought to Osmak included Randy Serda, Paltrey Reyes, Ace Serda, Narciso Teremoir, Perry Benig and Romel Cristoba.
The city OBO is currently preparing its inspection report and recommendation to the Mayor as of presstime.
In a separate investigation, the Makati Police cited overloading as the cause of the malfunction.
