Contractors urge Congress: Probe abusive cement cartel

BY DEXTER A SEE

BAGUIO CITY– Construction industry stakeholders here challenged members of Congress to conduct an investigation on the alleged cartel in the construction industry, particularly with cement, since ordinary Filipinos are being reportedly abused by the manufacturers.

While applauding the success of the Senate investigation in forcing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to withdraw the $330 million National Broadband network (NBN) contract with ZTE Corporation of China, contractors expressed disappointment over the continued failure of both the Senate and the House to investigate the abuses of investors in the local industry which had been depriving the ordinary citizen access to quality cement and construction materials for their needs.

The expose on the reported inferior quality of cement and its alleged excessive pricing originated from Baguio City through the effort of sympathetic construction industry stakeholders but it seems that both chambers of Congress preferred to investigate highly politicized issues rather than legitimate peoples issues.

They said use of inferior quality of cement and construction materials in both government and private infrastructure projects poses a threat to life and limb, thus, such abuses of manufacturers must be corrected through the efforts of legislators for the benefit of the Filipino people.

Now that the ZTE deal has been recalled, the stakeholders believe that Congress must focus its investigation on the abuses of these manufacturers who seem to be more powerful than the government agencies.

A concrete example of the failure of government agencies to perform their duties and responsibilities is the continuous proliferation of inferior quality of cement that is being promoted as a better kind compared to the tried and tested one.

Worst, the price of blended cement is even the same compared to Portland cement when in fact the former is the preferred in the construction industry.

If unchecked, they predicted that it is the ordinary Filipino citizen who is being abused right in his own land by multinational companies who insist on what they want and even going to the extent of overpowering government offices and dictating the tempo of the game at the expense of the Filipinos.

In Congress, it was Baguio City Rep. Mauricio Domogan who delivered a privilege speech relative to the skyrocketing prices of cement but the investigation conducted by the House committee on trade and commerce was overtaken by the May elections.

Contractors, engineers and professionals challenged both the administration and opposition lawmakers to uphold the interest of the Filipino people by pushing for the conduct of a congressional inquiry on the celebrated issues of inferior quality of cement and overpricing of construction industry materials such as cement.