DPWH still blames truck for Isabela bridge collapse

MANILA, Philippines — Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Manuel Bonoan is still inclined to blame truck overloading for the collapse of the brand-new Cabagan-Santa Maria Bridge in Isabela in February.

Bonoan, in a forum at the Makabagong San Juan City national government center last Wednesday, railed against what he described as the overloaded truck that passed and caused the bridge to collapse.

“Hopefully, we can work together against these overloaded trucks using our bridges. Because it results to such an inconvenience,” Bonoan said in Filipino.

He noted that a law prohibits truck overloading and sets the maximum weight capacity of vehicles passing through public bridges.

“We need the cooperation of local governments (to monitor trucks), especially on secondary roads that we are not able to monitor,” Bonoan said in a mix of English and Filipino.

Aside from blaming the truck, Bonoan said the DPWH is also looking at the bridge construction, including its design aspects, possible design faults and possible faults of the construction contractor.

He said the DPWH is puzzled that it took more than 10 years to construct the bridge, which was started in 2014.

A special committee headed by DPWH Undersecretary for legal service Anne Sharlyne Lapuz was tasked to conduct an in-depth and impartial fact-finding investigation into the collapse.

Bonoan said the special committee was empowered to “compel the attendance of DPWH employees knowledgeable of any circumstance in relation to the bridge” and other authority to determine the reasons for the collapse of the 990-meter bridge, which was built at a cost of P1.22 billion.

Although the committee was given only until April 25 to submit a report, the DPWH has yet to release its findings.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano earlier bewailed the DPWH’s “seeming inaction on erring contractors of infrastructure and projects that later turn out to be faulty and substandard” and failing to mete penalties or blacklist them.

He urged the government not to tolerate private contractors who bag major projects but deliver defective or deficient products or services.

The collapse of the Cabagan-Sta. Maria Bridge raised questions about the competence of the DPWH and private contractors to deliver safe and graft-free projects, Cayetano added.

According to an initial probe by the DPWH Bureau of Construction and Bureau of Design, three trucks were reported on the bridge at the time of incident. One passed through successfully, while the second was caught in the collapse.

The investigators also found that the bridge’s design parameters could allow vehicles weighing up to 44 tons.

The truck caught in the collapse reportedly exceeded 100 tons.

“The total length of the bridge is 990 meters, consisting of 12 arch bridges with a span of 60 meters and nine spans of pre-stressed concrete girder Type IVB, and the total length of approaches is 664.10 in.m. The contractor of the bridge is R.D. Interior Jr. Construction,” a part of the report read.

According to the DPWH, construction on the bridge began in 2014. Retrofitting efforts were made in 2018, followed by additional measures in 2021 to make the bridge more resistant to earthquakes.