QC buildings inspected for safety

Manila, Philippines - An official of the Quezon City Building Department (QCBD) said it has regularly inspected the structures in the city to enable them to withstand typhoons, earthquakes and other calamities. Engineer Isagani Versoza, Chief of the QCBD, said that there should be no cause for alarm as routine checks on the soundness of the city’s buildings are undertaken year-round. Before typhoon “Yolanda’’ struck parts of the Visayas and the recent magnitude 7.2 earthquake in Bohol and Cebu province, Versoza noted the QCBD has done everything to at least minimize damage on the city’s structures. “We have conducted inspections on buildings with or without any calamity. Routine inspections are special inspections,’’ Versoza said. “Mayor Herbert Bautista gave specific and strict instructions that regular inspections should be conducted to prevent severe damage and collapse of buildings during supertyphoons and tremors of high magnitude. Of course we can only do so much since we cannot totally win a fight against nature. We just have to follow what is in the National Building Code,’’ Verzosa added. Versoza explained that damage on structures is allowed under the building code as long as it does not collapse, citing the “behavior of earthquakes are unpredictable’’.