The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) ordered GMA and other parties with a penalty of P890,000 for labor violations in the accident that led to the death of veteran actor Eddie Garcia in June.
The veteran actor suffered a cervical spine injury on June 8 that led to his demise. He tripped on a cable while shooting a scene for the GMA teleserye Rosang Agimat in Tondo, Manila.
The actor was immediately brought to a nearby hospital. He was later transferred to the Makati Medical Center where he would remain in a coma for two weeks before dying on June 20.
After an investigation, DOLE-NCR said that GMA violated the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Law several times, including not providing a safety officer on location, not providing a first aid responder, and not submitting an incident report within 24 hours of the accident.
In an order signed by DOLE-National Capital Region (NCR) director Sarah Buena Mirasol, GMA was ordered to pay the P890,000 fine, along with Alpha Premier Transport Services, Gapo Special Effects Services, GMA-7 Employees Multipurpose Coop, Renteqaire Enterprises, CMB Film Services, and Shoot Digital Video.
GMA had earlier contested DOLE’s findings, saying that they first gave a copy of their incident report to Garcia’s family “as a matter of respect.” They also argued that the “workplace” covered by the OSH law “is deemed to refer only to those places where services of the employees are regularly rendered.”
However, DOLE said in its resolution that “GMA should have deployed one of its safety officers in the shooting site of Rosang Agimat, which could have prevented the untimely demise of Garcia.”
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