Erring contractors to be blacklisted: Ebdane set to fire DPWH execs in Mt Prov road tiff

BAGUIO CITY – Highways Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. is set to fire or suspend Dept. of Public Works and Highways officials and blacklist contractors responsible for the almost 90 percent slippage or “anomalous” implementation of the multi-million Mt. Data-Bontoc portion of the Halsema Highway – if investigations prove their culpability.

Ebdane bared this here Thursday to newsmen even as he gave a deadline to regional and Mt. province DPWH officials and contractors to ensure that the controversial road portion be replaced. He ordered them to finish the road project according to correct technical specifications setting the deadline third week this month.

“I will not hesitate to initiate charges against those responsible for the negative road construction (Mt. Data-Bontoc road.) But I will wait first for our probe team to finish investigating who were responsible for this and why,” he said. “You see most parts of the road were softer than hollow blocks.”

Visibly irked, Ebdane said he wouldn’t hesitate to fire or blacklist erring officials or contractors responsible for the road project which motorists traversing the route said was dangerous. A series of accidents recently happened on the road area resulting to the death or wounding of motorists. One of those killed was a DPWH driver when the vehicle he was driving was buried by a landslide.

Ebdane was here Thursday to attend a convention of the Road Engineering Association of the Philippines at the Pines View Hotel where he made his statements on the Mt. Data-Bontoc road controversy.

Concerned individuals like Juniper Dominguez and cause-oriented groups have questioned the process and implementation of the road projects.

They said the bidding of the road projects was also irregular as the correct legal processes were not followed.

The Mountain Province provincial board is now studying the creation of an ordinance on road safety measures and other government projects in the province following complaints aired by residents to provincial officials.

The route was reportedly lacking in warning devises and traffic management including directories for motorists.

To date, motorists said, warning signs haven’t been installed along the road.

Ebdane earlier ordered five contractors and sub-contractors of the defective concrete pavement blocks to stop implementation of their projects that are the primary components of the flagship projects of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo since they were unsatisfactorily done.

Ebdane also directed DPWH officials to immediately remove and replace defective concrete pavement blocks at the contractors’ expense.

The DPWH official required the contractors to provide the necessary precautionary safety measures such as the provision of warning and directional and traffic signs, including flagmen among others to ensure the safety of the motorists and pedestrians.

Ebdane’s orders came after a series of routine inspections and monitoring done by his office to ensure quality implementation of the priority projects of the Arroyo administration that would result in better development and economic activities in Mountain province and Ifugao which are traversed by the roadline.

This, as engineer Mariano Alquiza, Cordillera DPWH regional director, said their office had been constantly monitoring the implementation of the flagship projects in compliance with the order of Ebdane, thus, they had already issued several notices to a number of contractors with negative slippages to shape up or the office will resort to legal actions that would rescind their respective contracts and impose liquidating damages against them.

Prior to the brewing controversy on the defective implementation of projects, Alquiza said he advised materials and project engineers to ensure the contractors strictly comply with the project specifications to avoid serious problems in the future.

Alquiza noted that the Secretary’s order stopping the contractors from continuing the implementation of the defective projects was a clear sign that the agency means business and they do not tolerate lousy works especially in the priority projects of the Arroyo administration since they do not want the President to be embarrassed to project beneficiaries.

Engineer Daniel Domingo, DPWH assistant regional director, said there were no signs of deteriorating concrete pavements as the same were free from scaling and cracks during the course of their ocular inspections but the quality assurance unit based their findings on defective projects based on the result of the curing test as they failed to note physical defects.

He said test results of flexural strength of the beam samples were satisfactory and never questioned by the inspectorate team.

The team reportedly concluded their observation of poor workmanship based on the unsatisfactory result of compressive strength of core samples taken from the project sites.

DPWH rules provide that beam samples shall be considered specimen samples to be tested for flexural strength in accordance to international standards and cylinder samples shall not be used as substitute for determining the adequacy of the strength of concrete. Since the concrete pavement passed the flexural test requirement, Domingo said finished pavement may be accepted and that there is no more need to resort to coring tests except for the determination of thickness.

Upon learning of the unsatisfactory result of the compressive test on core samples, the DPWH-Car reportedly withheld payment to the claim of contractors until they could prove otherwise.

Domingo said there are numerous possible reasons why concrete mixed failed, such as the use of inferior quality of materials or incorrect proportion of cement, aggregates and water and due to improper construction procedures, among others.

Domingo said the responsibility of controlling the quality of materials and workmanship at the project site totally rested on the materials engineers being at the forefront of project execution. – Alfred Dizon and Dexter See