ETON Tragedy: 1 year after
We Remember! We Fight!
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Justice to ETON 11 workers from Herb Valencia on Vimeo.
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January 26, 2012
Families of victims of ETON Residences Tragedy continue search for Justice; re-files criminal case today versus billionaire Lucio Tan
On the eve of the 1st year of the gruesome ETON Residences Tragedy, survivors and families of the victims continue to search for justice by filing another criminal case against billionaire Lucio Tan, owner of Eton Residences. Last January 27, 2011, 11 workers of the posh condominium being constructed in Makati City, fell from the 32nd floor of the work site when the rope of the gondola the workers were riding snapped, plunging most of them to their immediate death. Among the 11, Only Ruel Perez survived.
The families of the victims are set to re-file reckless imprudence resulting to multiple homicide today, 1pm at the Makati Regional Trial Court. Respondents to the case are the following: Lucio Tan, Chairperson of ETON Properties, Danilo Ignacio, President ETON Properties, Guillermo Torres, Project Manager Arlo Aluminum, Galo Leonardo, Senior President Arlo Aluminum, Ian Lester Agpoon, Safety Officer, Jason Rosete, Project-in-Charge Arlo Aluminum, Eduardo Pinon, owner EPM Glazing. The case was filed before but was dismissed last year despite filing last March 22, 2011 a “manifestation with vehement opposition to motion to dismiss the case” at the Makati Prosecutors Office by two of the families. The dismissal was done without the survivors receiving any updates on the case or information on the schedule of hearings.
The survivors have filed various labor and criminal cases in the past year, among them are non-payment of minimum wages, unsafe working conditions, non-compliance to occupational health and safety regulations resulting to death, non-registration of social security, non-payment of SSS, employment of minor, and violation of labor standards. The families are also appealing against the dismissal of the reckless imprudence case filed against ETON. “The labor case filed by the father of Vic Edward Pinon have been decided by the labor arbiter in favor of the complainant and instructed E.M. Pinon to pay the backwages amounting to P150,000,” said Noel Colina, convenor of the Justice for Eton11 Network and Executive Director of the Institute for Occupational Health and Safety Development (IOHSAD). IOHSAD is a non-profit, non-governmental health and safety organization based in Manila. “Complainant is still planning for a partial appeal because only E.M. Pinon was penalized while Arlo Aluminum and ETON Properties were excluded by the arbiter. As for the other cases, victims are still waiting for resolution.”
According to Colina, the case of ETON workers lay bare the lethal combo of non-inspection of workplaces and a toothless Occupational Health and Safety Standard (OHSS). “First, instead of growing muscle on a skeleton crew of less than 300 labor inspectors pitted against 900,000 workplaces, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) in 2004 institutionalized non-inspection by issuing Department Order 57-2004 (D.O. 57-04). The D.O. 57-04 allowed for companies employing more than 200 workers to do self-assessment instead of going through a comprehensive inspection. This allowed ETON Residences to deploy and use an illegal gondola which killed the 10 workers.”
“Secondly, despite the findings of the DoLE-National Capital Region (DoLE-NCR) that ETON violated existing safety standards, no penalty was imposed on the company because none exist under the present OHSS,” continued Colina. “The Standard seems to more like a wish list rather than a set of stringent rules meant to ensure the safety of all workers. Without heavy penalties for erring companies, the utter disregard by management for safety of workers will continue.”
