DPWH hit over MP bridge; Duterte urged to intercede

Started 4 years ago but still unfinished 

By Gabriel Moguet

SABANGAN, Mountain Province – Officials of this scenic town assailed the Dept. of Public Works and Highways and a contractor for not finishing construction of a bridge here along Halsema Highway started four years ago which they said, had caused much inconvenience among commuters.       

Tired of hearing complaints from their constituents, the Sangguniang Bayan of this town recently passed a second resolution urging the DPWH to expedite construction of Sabangan Jumbo Bridge here at Nacagan, Tambingan which links this province to Benguet and Baguio City.

The resolution was coursed through the Office of the President, since according to SB members, they wanted quick action from the DPWH as its long delayed completion had been subject of unpleasant comments specially in social media.

SB records bared the local legislative body passed a resolution and submitted it earlier to  DPWH  Sec. Mark A. Villar,  through the Mountain Province District Engineering Office in Dec. 6, 2016 urging him to hasten completion of the bridge.

“To the dismay of the SB members, there was no reply coming from the central office of the DPWH or from the MPDEO which is very unusual leaving the SB members wondering what went wrong or what happened to their request,” an SB member said.

The SB said Republic act 6713 established code of conduct and ethical standards for public officials and employees mandating they must respond within 15 days to communication letters and must contain their action taken.

Theodore M. Velasco, SB legal research officer said the MPDEO has not given SB members any feedback on what happened to their resolution.

“As standard operating procedure, the MPDEO should have notified the SB members if they have forwarded the resolution or have thrown it in the waste can labeled “nabubulok” or just simply inform them through text messages if they are too busy with their road works,” Velasco added.

The Nacagang Bridge was abandoned by the contractor and had kept the constituents of Sabangan and daily commuters passing the bridge wondering what happened.

The land owners affected by the project were rumored to have stopped the project but then they have publicly posted in the area and even in social media that there was no problem on the road right of way of the bridge citing instead the poor performance of the DPWH and contractor.

To date, commuters are using a detour road constructed on the river a few meters from the bridge to reach the other side.

But during heavy rains, the detour road could not be used as it is often washed away.