PAMPANGA, Philippines – The Chuzon Supermarket branch in Apalit town in this province had been operating without business permit from the municipal government since 2018.
The Pampanga Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) disclosed this in the latest earthquake situation report it issued late afternoon on Thursday, April 25.
The PDRRMO said the municipal government had found out that the grocery store’s building had unfinished base micro-filling.
“Business permit of the said establishment was revoked from 2018 up to present due to the status / integrity of the building. The management of the business establishment has been operating without the benefit of Mayor’s/ Business permit in spite of the letters set by the authorities to cease and desist in its operation,” the report said.
Government engineers observed “new cracks on the front portion of the establishment,” the PDRRMO also said.
Earlier, it was observed that the Chuzon Supermarket building in Apalit and the Dr. Lim’s Hospital building “were leaning toward each other” as a result of the magnitude 6.1 earthquake on April 22 .
In Guagua town, the Chuzon Supermarket sustained cracks on the wall.
The grocery store’s branch in Sto Tomas town had no reported damage but it was closed temporarily upon the recommendation of the provincial government to carry out an inspection. President Rodrigo Duterte had ordered the closure of all the establishment’s branches.
The PDRRMO’s updated report placed the number of earthquake-related casualties in Pampanga at 13. Eleven perished in Porac town, where most of fatalities were buried under the rubbles of the collapsed Chuzon Supermarket, and two in Lubao town.
The office said 1,268 residential buildings, mostly in Porac and Floridablanca towns, were totally damaged, while 567 houses sustained partial damage.
In the towns of Porac, Lubao, Floridablanca, Guagua, Sasmuan, Santa Rita, Bacolor, and Mexico, 608 families or 3,306 individuals had been evacuated.
In the capital city of San Fernando, 17 schools had partial damage that need to be repaired before the start of the next school year. These include:
- Pampanga High School
- Saguin Integrated School
- Dolores Elementary School
- San Fernando Elementary School
- Sindalan Elementary School
- Gloria 2 Day Care Center
- San Nicolas Integrated School
- Camp Olivas Elementary School
- Telabastagan Integrated School
- Pandaras Elementary School
- Baliti Integrated School
- Sto. Nino Elementary School
- Sta. Lucia Integrated School
- Pulungbulu Integrated School
- San Juan South Elementary School
- San Pedro Integrated School
- Juliana Elementary School
Several school buildings were also partially damaged in other parts of this province. – Rappler.com
