MANILA, Philippines — More than three months after a nine-story building under construction collapsed in Angeles City and ultimately left 30 people dead, the Department of Labor and Employment has upheld roughly ₱11.49 million in liabilities against Golden Years Construction and Steelworks Corporation and building owner Ernest Jackson Lim over unpaid worker benefits and serious occupational safety and health violations.
The latest ruling does more than preserve a multimillion-peso penalty. It adds another layer to a disaster that has already raised difficult questions about construction-site safety, enforcement and what happened after authorities had previously ordered work at the project stopped.
According to DOLE, Labor Secretary Francis Tolentino signed the resolution on August 17, 2026, modifying the department’s earlier June 16 order.
The total liability now consists of approximately ₱1.17 million in workers’ monetary claims — including unpaid wages during the implementation of a work-stoppage order, wage underpayments, unpaid rest-day premiums and holiday pay — plus ₱10.32 million in administrative fines for occupational safety and health violations.
Workers won additional claims
The latest resolution followed a motion for reconsideration filed by workers John John Dogos Placidas, Michael Dogos Placidas and Alfredo Aibis Balute.
DOLE found their claims meritorious, including their entitlement to rest-day premiums and wages covering the implementation of the work-stoppage order from October 16 to October 24, 2025.
That finding increased the monetary award owed to affected workers from the amount contained in the department’s original June ruling.
But the much larger portion of the case — ₱10.32 million in occupational safety and health fines — remained intact.
What DOLE says it found before the collapse
DOLE’s review cited a series of workplace-safety violations at the project.
These included failure to provide required personal protective equipment, failure to obtain necessary permits for mechanical lifting equipment, inadequate deployment of required safety officers and first aiders, and problems involving temporary accommodation for workers.
The department said the situation was made more serious by the submission of fake or invalid certificates for the project’s designated first aider and safety officer.
DOLE characterized the record as showing persistent and willful noncompliance with occupational safety standards despite previous enforcement action and notice of deficiencies.
The department said the conditions exposed workers to the risk of serious injury or death.
Then came May 24
At around the early hours of May 24, 2026, the nine-story structure being built along Teodoro Street in Barangay Balibago suddenly collapsed.
Dozens of people were caught in the disaster.
Reports from GMA News and other outlets said many construction workers had been sleeping in barracks inside the unfinished structure when it came down. The collapse also damaged an adjacent lodging establishment. A Malaysian tourist was among those killed.
What began as a frantic search-and-rescue operation eventually turned into a lengthy retrieval effort through massive slabs of concrete and twisted steel.
By June 9, authorities confirmed that the death toll had reached 30 people.
The disaster became one of the Philippines’ most serious recent construction-site tragedies.
The work-stoppage order now matters even more
One of the most important pieces of the case predates the collapse by several months.
The project had previously been placed under a DOLE work-stoppage order because of safety deficiencies.
SunStar reported that DOLE Region III lifted that order on October 24, 2025, after the regional office said Golden Years Construction had implemented corrective measures, including providing protective equipment, safety belts and lifelines, improving scaffolding, installing safety signs and addressing worker welfare facilities.
That history creates a significant enforcement question.
If the site had been declared compliant enough for the stoppage order to be lifted, how did DOLE’s later investigation arrive at findings of persistent safety violations before the deadly May 2026 collapse?
DOLE itself acknowledged problems in enforcement following its investigation.
In June, Tolentino said the department found “gaps in the implementation of labor laws” and announced administrative proceedings involving an official and certain labor inspectors from DOLE Regional Office III.
That issue may prove as important to the public-interest side of the story as the ₱11.49-million liability itself.
Owner previously challenged DOLE ruling
The respondents have also challenged the labor department’s findings.
In July, lawyer Willy Rivera, representing building owner Ernest Jackson Lim, argued that his client had been denied due process and maintained that there was no employer-employee relationship between Lim and the construction workers because they had been hired by the contractor.
Rivera also questioned the evidence supporting some of the wage and benefit awards.
DOLE rejected the due-process argument in its latest resolution.
The department said records showed the respondents had been properly notified and given reasonable opportunities to explain their position and submit supporting evidence.
Under the August resolution, the respondents were ordered to settle the monetary award and administrative fines within 10 days of receiving the decision.
Separate accountability cases continue
The labor case is not the only legal consequence stemming from the tragedy.
Philstar previously reported that the mother of one of the victims filed a complaint for reckless imprudence resulting in homicide against Lim, Golden Years Construction owner Johnson Cu and site engineer Arlou Nondong Ligsangan.
The building owner’s legal counsel has said Lim would cooperate with the official fact-finding investigation.
Authorities including the PNP, local government and other agencies had also investigated possible structural defects, permit issues and safety violations following the collapse.
Families were promised compensation assistance
DOLE earlier directed the Employees’ Compensation Commission to assist qualified victims and their families.
The department said qualified beneficiaries of workers who died could receive ₱15,000 in immediate EC cash assistance, as well as assistance in applying for a ₱30,000 funeral benefit through the Social Security System. Eligible dependents may also qualify for death-pension benefits.
Qualified injured workers were offered ₱10,000 in immediate assistance, in addition to applicable disability benefits.
Those benefits, however, are separate from the liabilities imposed on the contractor and building owner.
The ₱11.49 million ruling answers only part of the story
The latest DOLE decision establishes a documented record of labor and occupational-safety violations and requires millions of pesos to be paid in worker benefits and penalties.
But it should not be confused with a final engineering determination of exactly why the structure collapsed.
Investigators have separately examined possible structural defects, construction practices, building-permit issues and other factors that could have contributed to the disaster.
And that distinction matters.
The biggest story may eventually prove not to be the ₱11.49 million.
It may be the chain of warnings, inspections, corrective-action claims and enforcement decisions that came before a building packed with sleeping workers collapsed in the middle of the night — and whether stronger intervention could have prevented one of the deadliest construction disasters the country has seen in recent years.
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