By Mario Casayuran
Senator Panfilo M. Lacson said Monday the devastation and loss of life caused by recent calamities, such as the series of destructive earthquakes that hit Mindanao, drive home the need to strengthen building safety standards in the Philippines.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson
(Senate of the Philippines/ MANILA BULLETIN)
Lacson stressed this as he filed Senate Bill 1239 to help protect the public from the effects of natural and man-made disasters while giving the antiquated 1977 National Building Code a much-needed update.
One of the destructive temblors was the magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck Davao del Sur in southern Mindanao last Dec. 15.
“Experience tells us that there is an urgent need to strengthen the overall policy on how buildings and structures are built in the country. Not to mention the country’s geographical location along the boundary of major tectonic plates and at the center of the typhoon belt, coupled by its socially and economically vulnerable population, it becomes even more imperative to review our four-decade-old National Building Code,” Lacson said in his bill.