BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon
Mt Province, Kalinga ‘engineering stupidities’

(I yield this space to Juniper Dominguez of Sabangan, Mountain Province on his observations on State of the Nation infrastructure projects in the Cordillera):

“This respectfully concerns the recently concluded SONA projects summit in Bontoc, Mt. Province wherein the new words were coined like "engineering stupidity" as stated by Rev. Father Val of SADC, "obligasyon" by Kalinga Vice Gov. Baac and "engineering lapses" by Kalinga Rep. Manuel Agyao who is also Mt. Province caretaker congressman.

“The people of Mt. Province and Kalinga where the SONA projects are being implemented should know the hereunder facts:

1. The SONA projects are construction/improvement of our roads and when engineers allow contractors to connect 36" concrete culverts to existing stone culverts, that is not improvement, that is engineering stupidity.

2. When the Department of Public Works and Highways allows contractors to use small and “dead” stones in a supposedly grouted riprap when they fully know that the minimum diameter of stones to be used in a riprap is 12 inches and allow the contractor to just paste the face of the riprap with cement and not grout it, making it "grouted pakpak," that is engineering stupidity.

3. When DPWH engineers allow contractors to use dirty and sub-standard aggregates for road concreting causing the pavement to crack despite not being run over by cars, that is engineering stupidity. But when the DPWH allowed these and paid for the above obviously sub-standard works, that is engineering ingenuity.

4. When Former DPWH-Cordillera assistant director Daniel Domingo reasoned out in a complaint against contractors whose projects were found sub-standard not to be awarded new projects (as stated in the provisions of Republic Act 9184), he said: "Those sub-standard projects are not yet accepted by the office hence not yet covered by the warranty, and that there is 10% retention and surety bond for these to cover the repairs of these sub-standard projects."

“This is engineering stupidity! True, they might have not been accepted by the government but they were paid. How can the 10% retention cover the extent of these sub-standard projects when they already collected it? It is too small an amount to cover the extent of repairs. Nowhere have I known that a DPWH insurer (surety bond for the project) paid for the repairs of sub-standard works in the DPWH.

“With all due respect to Rep. Agyao who is a civil engineer and to all deserving civil engineers who are not within the caliber of those above, my apologies. Not all civil engineers are that *@$%#! as stated, most are better with principles and with "sane" judgment. May your tribes increase.

“My congratulations to Vice Gov. Baac for his statement: "Dakayo nga contractors, kitanyo ti obligasyon yo. Saan kayo nga agtaraytaray ken aglemelemeng tapno pirmaan ni Domingo (referring to ARD Daniel Domingo, BAC chairman) dagijay award yo." At least, the vice governor was being honest to himself. May his tribe increase too.

Thank you very much to the organizers of the SONA summit, At least, almost everything has been said and action is waiting.”