“This is the worst day of our lives,” Joamel Angcao, an 18-year-old student, told The Associated Press as she and other siblings waited for word about their parents, who were among those trapped.
ANGELES, Philippines (AP) – A nine-story building under construction in a city north of the Philippine capital collapsed before dawn Sunday, leaving at least one Malaysian tourist dead and at least 21 mostly workers trapped in the rubble, officials said. Two were found alive but could not be immediately extricated.
At least 24 workers either managed to get out of the building, where they mostly slept on the first floor, or were rescued after it collapsed to the ground around 2:30 a.m. in a crowded neighborhood of hotels, cafes, spas and rural homes outside a former US Air Force base, officials said.
A Malaysian tourist died and another guest was injured in a house that was partially hit by debris from the collapsing building in Angeles City in Pampanga Province, Fire Superintendent Maria Lea Sajili said.
Relatives of those trapped under concrete slabs, twisted iron bars and aluminum scaffolding and other debris prayed and wept as they awaited word from about 700 rescuers who busily cleared the rubble to make room for them to move safely into the collapsed structure.
“This is the worst day of our lives,” Joamel Angcao, an 18-year-old student, told The Associated Press as she and other siblings waited for word about their parents, who were among those trapped.
Her parents were tending to their food and coffee cart located near the building when it collapsed. The parents had fought through poverty to send her and another brother to school, Angcao said, with tears in her eyes.
John Carlo Villarente, a young plumber, said he left the building about two hours before it collapsed after heavy rains and strong winds to get a drink.
“I was very shocked, there were people inside, including my nephew,” Villarente told the AP. “We ran and tried to help, but they didn’t let us get close because people said it was too dangerous.”
Randy Alapide, a 41-year-old plumber who was off-duty when the accident happened, said he returned to the scene and helped rescuers find the trapped workers by drawing a map to pinpoint their location. “I know three of the missing. They are breadwinners and have families waiting for them,” Alapide said.
Sajili said two of the trapped workers were found alive by rescue teams, but it took time to get them out safely. Ambulance vans, firefighters and police lined up waiting for the two to be taken out.
Nearly 200 police officers were helping with the rescue, which would continue overnight “until everyone is accounted for,” said regional police director Brig. said Gen. Jess Mendez.
The city of Angeles hosted one of the largest US Air Force bases outside of US territory until it was closed in the early 1990s, helping to develop Angeles and its surrounding cities and towns into entertainment and commercial centers in the Philippines’ main northern region of Luzon.
The former US airbase, now a bustling industrial and tourist enclave called the Clark Freeport Zone, lies about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Manila.
By JIM GOMEZ, AARON FAVILA and JOEAL CALUPITAN Associated Press
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