MORE NEWS, MOUNTAIN PROVINCE

Controversial million-peso contracts: halsema road contractors complete defective Mt. Data-Bontoc works

By Dexter A. See

BONTOC, Mountain Province -- The ten contractors who were found to have defective works along the Baguio-Bontoc-Banaue road, popularly known as the Halsema highway, have completed corrective measures on the controversial projects.

Mariano Alquiza, regional director of the Department of Public Works and Highways in the Cordillera bared this, adding they prioritized removal and replacement of defective projects simultaneous with implementation of other projects to ensure that the agency is within the given timetable for the completion of the SONA projects of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The replaced defective works cover a total length of 634.5 lineal meters found in different sections of the Mount Data to Bontoc and Bontoc to Banaue sections of the highway.

Last October 2007, Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane ordered the ten contractors, whose projects failed a series of coring tests, to remove and replace the concrete pavement they have placed in their assigned sections of the road before they will be allowed to continue prosecuting their awarded projects.

He warned that contractors who fail to abide by his order will face blacklisting and the filing of appropriate charges against them and they will not be allowed to proceed with the implementation of their projects.

Alquiza said compliance made by the contractors is an indication that they have no intention to defy Ebdane’s order and the convenience of the motoring public is their primary concern.

While there will be slight delays in the implementation of the numerous projects along the road, the DPWH official said contractors will have to work double time to meet their work programs without sacrificing the quality of work so as not to repeat the previous scenario.

Ebdane said all flagship projects of the President will be completed by June of 2010 during the end of her six-year term.

This, as Alquiza said the people of the province should not to be misinformed by “malicious propaganda being circulated by some sectors in the province that the whole funding for the Halsema highway rehabilitation project was already released but there are no significant accomplishments.” He added “such claims were false, fabricated and baseless.”

The funding for the remaining two phases of the Halsema rehabilitation project, he said, will be released on a staggered basis starting from 2007 to 2010 since the money will be incorporated in the annual general appropriations act or the national budget as committed by the President.

Leonardo Leyaley, Mountain province district engineer, claimed that they are conducting thorough monitoring and surprise tests on the going projects to ensure all works are done according to specifications.