ANGELES CITY, Pampanga — Authorities officially ended search and rescue operations Monday night at the site of a collapsed nine-story building in Barangay Balibago after advanced scanning equipment confirmed there were no more signs of life beneath the rubble.
The Unified Command System terminated the rescue mission at 8:27 p.m. following a final assessment by a specialized team from Pasig City using specialized life-locator equipment.
Angeles City Mayor Carmelo Lazatin II announced Tuesday that the mission has shifted to retrieval and clearing operations.
Lazatin instructed ground teams to handle all recovered remains with the utmost dignity. An incident action plan for the new phase was finalized during a command briefing late Monday.
As of Tuesday, authorities reported that 26 people had been successfully rescued from the site, including 24 from the collapsed structure and two from an adjacent apartment building damaged by the impact.
Four fatalities have been confirmed, while 17 people remain missing and are now the primary focus of the recovery phase.
In a lighter moment during the second day of operations, responders rescued a dog that was found uninjured beneath the debris. The animal walked out of the structure and was placed under the care of the Angeles City Veterinary Office for monitoring.
A round-the-clock response force of 267 personnel has been deployed at the site since the second day of the disaster. The unified force includes rescue teams from the regional Bureau of Fire Protection and all eight provinces of Central Luzon, augmented by heavy equipment and personnel from Olongapo City, Porac town, and Pampanga Vice Governor Dennis Pineda.
On the policy and regulatory front, newly appointed Acting Labor Secretary Francis Tolentino ordered a one-month preventive suspension for Department of Labor and Employment Region 3 director Geraldine Panlilio on Tuesday, his first day in office.
Tolentino named Assistant Regional Director Alejandro Inza Cruz to temporarily replace Panlilio while investigators review why a previous stoppage order on the building had been lifted.
In a radio interview, Tolentino cited that the construction of worker barracks within active construction zones is prohibited under occupational safety regulations. He stated that this setup contributed to the high number of casualties and is a key focus of the ongoing investigation.
He also cited that the department is aligning with directives from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to improve wage policies and strictly enforce regulations governing legitimate job contracting.
On the ground, the City Social Welfare and Development Office is working with the families of the missing to collect photographs and identifying details to expedite the retrieval process.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development is also distributing food packs, hygiene kits, financial assistance and psychosocial counseling to the affected families.
