TABUK, Kalinga -- A monitoring team from
national government line agencies and offices of the provincial government
disproved allegations of substandard accomplishment and incapability of the
contractor in the implementation of the road upgrading of the Kalinga-Abra
Road.
This was contrary to
statements issued earlier by 14 pastors purportedly representing various
churches in the province who wrote Dept. of Public Works and Highways Sec.
Rogelio Singson alleging that projects being undertaken along the Kalinga-Abra
road are not properly implemented as per program of work and quality prescribed
under DPWH standards.
In its report, the
monitoring team said it was satisfied with the accomplishment of the
contractor.
It found out on actual
site inspection actual accomplishment was even higher than the 27 percent
accomplishment reported by the Dept. of Public Works and Highways-Cordillera
Administrative Region.
Engr. Florante Balala,
Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers, Kalinga Chapter president and NGO
representative of monitoring team said, the team substantiated the
accomplishment report made by DPWH-CAR.
He said the output of
the contractor conforms with DPWH standards contrary to the allegation of the
group of pastors.
The monitoring team
was composed of Dept. of Interior and Local Government provincial director Francisco Gamatero as
chairman, with Philippine Information Agency manager Peter Balocnit; engineer
FloranteBalala, Col. Raul Bautista of the 503rd brigade; engineers
Teodoro Owek of DPWH-KDEO,
Saturnino Bayong of Provincial
Engineering Office and RosendoDakiwag Jr. of the Provincial Planning and
Development Office as members.
Earlier, 14 pastors
purportedly representing various churches in the province wrote Sec. Singson
alleging that projects being undertaken along the Kalinga-Abra road were not
properly implemented as per program of work and quality prescribed under DPWH
standards.
The contractor of said
road upgrading project took exception to allegations hurled against his
construction firm.
Engineer Bon Holden C.
Mangaoang, general manager of BHM construction, in his letter to the DPWH
secretary and various officials of the province assailed the group’s haphazard
and hasty conclusion contained in the letter of the pastors led by a certain
pastor Dauz.
He said all projects
his firm is undertaking underwent public bidding. “The government will not
disburse a single centavo unless the eligibilities of the contractors are
established. BHMC is wondering why his firm is singled out,” he said.
He added there was a
similarly disparaging letter reportedly sent by Gov. Jocel C. Baac to DPWH Sec.
Singson almost at the same time with the letter of the pastors.
The BHMC urged the
DPWH and other monitoring groups to subject all other projects being undertaken
by other contractors for rigorous inspection.
“To be fair, let every
single infrastructure project in the province be probed particularly citing the
Macutay-San Quintin FMR, FBR Bridge 1, FBR Brdige 2 all in the Municipality of
Rizal, the Ableg-Balenciagao, Pasil, and Saleng, Blalbalan section of the
Kalinga-Abra road which was terminated, and the Mamaga Bridge to Basao Bridge
Section of the Bontoc-Tabuk-Tuguegarao road,” the BHMCV said in a press
statement.
All these projects are
reportedly contracted to Jocel C. Baac Construction (JCBC).
Amidst the
controversy, Balbalan constituents refuted the pastors’ allegations.
In a manifesto released by various civic and religious
organizations, they stated: “ We, the different organizations and constituents
of Balbalan, namely the Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, Seventh day Adventists,
union spiritistas, Benevolents, Liberty Baptists, free believers in Christ,
streams of water ministries, KALIPIs, Senior Citizens, Farmers Groups, upon
learning and reading of the news article had group meetings after which we
grouped as assembly and come up with the following sentiments;
“That the construction
work in the whole stretch of the Kalinga-Abra road was and is not manned by
only one but several construction firms; That through a lay man’s appreciation
we find the concreting project which is still on-going and undertaken by BHM
construction of good quality and workmanship and better compared to the
concreting done by other contractors along the stretch of the Kalinga-Abra
Road;
“That the 14 church
groups supposedly the ministries of the gospel implementing the values formation
and Moral Recovery Program in our beloved province made a pre-mature conclusion
when the project is still on-going;
“That the members of
the 14 church groups are not residents nor are the ministry work based in
Balbalan. Even then, the pastors should have made an ocular inspection of the
project site then made comparisons to other on-going concreting projects in the
other municipalities in the province.
The various groups
disproved “erroneous concluding observations of the pastors.”
The manifesto was sent
to Sec. Singson for his information.
Said manifesto was
also signed by all barangay captains of
Balbalan town traversed by the Kalinga-Abra Road.
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