ILOILO CITY -- The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) assured that it will continue serving micro, small and medium entrepreneurs (MSMEs) in Antique province despite a footbridge incident that injured its personnel and two interns.
“This incident will not dampen our spirit to deliver DTI’s programs to the public and extend help to the beneficiaries,” DTI-Antique said in a statement released Tuesday, June 21.
DTI issued the statement after the June 15 incident in Laua-an town, where DTI inaugurated the P1.1-million shared service facility (SSF) for the traditional herbal medicines production of the Latazon Indigenous People Organization.
In the statement, DTI-Antique clarified that the inauguration ceremony was already finished when the incident happened.
Most of the team and guests had already crossed the footbridge located at Latazon village.
But DTI-Antique personnel Michael Villavert as well as two interns from the University of Antique (UA), Arlene Bangcaya and Allyn Joy Necor, fell and were pinned when the hanging footbridge collapsed.
Villavert and Bangcaya had to undergo head operation while Necor only had slight injuries. All three are now recuperating.
Meanwhile, an investigation is underway if there are negligence and structural defects in the construction of the hanging footbridge.