By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

All local government units (LGUs) in Negros Occidental are encouraged to impose stricter building codes amid renewed calls in response to the major earthquake in Türkiye earlier this month.

“It’s a matter of implementation lang. I would really like to encourage our LGUs nga wala dapat shortcuts, because any shortcuts could lead to disaster,” Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said.

Lacson said so far in the Philippines, contractors are following building codes and are complying with the required permits before construction.

He pointed out that LGUs are now requiring establishments and businesses to secure an occupancy permit before operating.

Authorities in Türkiye have determined that poor building standards, lax policing of building codes, and alleged corruption between their governments and the building contractors were the reason why a lot of structures collapsed due to the quake.

Earlier in 2018, Renato Solidum, Jr., director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology and currently the Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology, said LGUs on Negros Island should seriously look into building new earthquake-resistant structures, as well as retrofitting the existing ones.

He explained that buildings should be constructed with hollow blocks that are six-inches thick, and vertical steel bars with a spaced diameter of 10 millimeters (40 centimeters) to each other.

Over the past few years, several new fault lines have also been discovered, not just in Negros but also in neighboring Panay Island, which are capable of generating strong tremors.

Last week, Solidum urged LGUs in Western Visayas to also revisit and update their earthquake disaster assessment response.

The strongest earthquake to jolt Western Visayas was the magnitude 8.2 “Lady Caycay” quake on January 25, 1948, which destroyed 55 Spanish-era churches and even triggered a tsunami./DGB, WDJ