Irregularities at DPWH Mt Province

BEHIND THE SCENES
Alfred P. Dizon

BONTOC, Mountain Province -- The “Daang Matuwid” program of the Aquino administration is seemingly not being followed in Mountain Province by some officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Take for example the government agency’s prequalification awards and bids committee. They still pushed through with the bidding of P67 million worth of infrastructure projects in the province despite complaints of representatives of two construction firms that their bid records were seized by individuals right inside the provincial DPWH office so they wouldn’t be able to participate in the bidding.
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According to the PBAC members, since the complaining private firms didn’t submit their bid forms, they couldn’t participate. The bidding could have been postponed to set an investigation and clarify the matter. But then, wonder of wonders, the PBAC members were seemingly intoxicated by the hot weather and view of the Chico River that they allowed the bidding to proceed.

Construction firms representatives Ernie G. Baggao of EGB and Peter Omengan of PBO said the obvious intent of the grabbing of their documents by the individuals who were not employees of the DPWH was meant to stop them from participating in the bidding.
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Any matuwid worker or official of the said office should have made corrective measures to ensure that the bidding was not tainted. Anyway since court charges for robbery with intimidation have been filed against the alleged culprits, let us leave it at that and let the courts decide on its merits.

DPWH Sec. Rogelio Singson was reportedly sent a complaint regarding the incident, so let us see what he will do about this. Whether some DPWH officials in Mountain Province would be sacked or reprimanded remains to be seen.

I got interesting information that some people orchestrated the incidents so they would be able to get a slice of the juicy contracts.
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A side bar to the story is that the contracts included the Balaoa to Tue road widening in Tadian town. I talked with Anglican Priest Eduardo Solang a few days ago in La Trinidad, Benguet who said that indeed, construction works have started. Solang, a resident near the construction site said residents were opposing widening of the road to make it two-way as it will disturb the mountainside.

“We are not against two-lane roads, but in this case, widening the road to make it two-way would be dangerous as a lot of mountainslides could happen considering that it is very steep and high,” he said.

Solang, also the president of the Movement for Advancement of Inter-Tribal Unity and Development in the province, said they were opposing the two-lane construction before lives could be lost as a result of mountainslides in the future.
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According to Solang, the environmental composition of the mountain should not be disturbed. He said the road was an artery of the Mountain Province- Cervantes Road in Ilocos Sur but considering that there was a better road network to Cervantes in Tadian, the Tue mountainsides should not be chopped.
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Maybe Padi Solang has a point. Over the years, I have passed along the Halsema Highway and saw how mountainsides which were excavated to widen the road have been a perennial source of misery for stranded commuters who had to spend nights along the highway owing to landslides which closed the road for days or weeks. Until now, road slides along the Halsema are frequent particularly during storms or heavy rains.