By Jay Ereno and Karen Lema
ANGELES, Philippines May 26 (Reuters) – Lea Casilao and her husband usually began each day exchanging text messages: “Good morning” from her, and his usual reply of “Good morning, love.”
But on Sunday morning, no reply came.
Casilao said she knew her husband, Joselito, had been staying at the workers’ barracks on Saturday night because they had been messaging until the evening, making it likely that he was among those trapped after a building under construction in the city of Angeles, north of Manila, collapsed at dawn on Sunday.
Authorities called off search and rescue operations on Monday evening after rescuers, using life locator equipment, determined there were no longer signs of life beneath the rubble.
The focus shifted on Tuesday to recovering the remains of the victims.
“My hope of still finding him alive has collapsed,” Casilao said, her voice breaking.
Casilao said she and her husband had planned to meet at the construction site on Sunday afternoon, with her husband supposed to pick her up. When she was unable to reach him, she went straight to the site and saw the tangle of concrete, mangled metal, and collapsed scaffolding.
“I kept calling his number, but nothing,” said Casilao, 47, sitting in a makeshift tent as a bulldozer outside began clearing debris from the road.
Beside her were other families waiting anxiously for news of their loved ones.
“We know how hard this is for you,” Maria Leah Sajili, information officer at the regional Bureau of Fire Protection, told a press briefing on Tuesday.
“We sympathise with what you are going through. Rest assured, we did everything we could to save lives, and now we have to move forward,” she said.
At least four people have been confirmed dead, including a Malaysian national whose body was recovered on Sunday from a neighbouring hotel building that had also been hit by the collapse. Another 16, mostly construction workers, remain missing.
One of those who died was the father of 19-year-old Evelyn Alicaway. She said she learned of the accident from her uncle, and after seeing a video on social media she knew it was her father that rescuers were attempting to pull from the rubble.
“Even with his face blurred, I knew right away it was him. It hurt me so much to see my father like that,” Alicaway said in tears at her father’s funeral.
Authorities have launched an investigation into why the building collapsed, and whether or not it violated the terms of its construction permit: though only nine storeys were approved, a swimming pool was under construction on the 10th floor.
The Philippine labour agency stopped work at the site in September 2025 over safety violations, but lifted the order a month later after the company complied with regulations.
“We hope the owner will take responsibility and address what happened to the workers. The families are also suffering. This is not what we wanted, but they need to coordinate with us,” Alicaway’s mother, Rosenda, said.
(Reporting by Karen Lema, Jay Ereno, Lorenza Lesaba and Noel Celis; Editing by David Stanway)
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