Posted on 28 Mar 2018
The Consumer Union of the Philippines raised concerns over the safety of Philippine manufactured steel bars which are used in the construction of high-rise buildings.
CUP president Rodel Taton said in a forum at the Quezon City Sports Club he was shocked to hear Association of Structural Engineers chairman Emilio Morales’ warning that many buildings could collapse if a strong earthquake hit Metro Manila.
The recent earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 Richter scale that hit Hualien in Taiwan resulted in the collapse of many buildings and the death of a Filipino maid. “Condominium owners face risk of damage to their units, or possibly worse,” Taton said.
He said since more than a decade ago, the formula and process of the manufacturing of steel bars were deliberately modified by local steel factories without informing the general public and the government. Taton said they were apparently misrepresenting these lower quality quenched steel bars as a higher grade for structural application. The inferior quenched steel bars are being sold to consumers, contractors and developers, without them knowing of the great danger they are exposed to, the group said.
Quenching is the process of subjecting the hot steel bars to rapid cooling. This creates an outer layer skin that passes the tests conducted by Bureau of Philippine Standard of the Department of Trade and Industry.
The group said tests done by the BPS did not expose the danger that could arise from the quenched steel bars which should not be welded, bended, threaded and galvanized.
