“Waste of funds” PB Member Abapo slams road re-blocking projects

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — Bohol Provincial Board Member Tomas Abapo Jr. lashed at the re-blocking project in many segments of national road in the province, being undertaken by different contractors and supervised by the DPWH, saying these are just "waste of funds."

The road re-blocking and delay in completion of bridge projects have triggered a public uproar being feasted in social media.

Abapo, in his privilege speech at the PB in Friday's session presided over by Vice Governor Dionisio Balite, expressed disgust over these projects that, aside from too much delay, is causing loss of funds.

In his earlier expose, Abapo said the delays in completion of roads and bridges - like those at Makapiko River in Batuan town and at Barangays Hinawanan and Palo in Loay town - have caused too much confusion and inconvenience to motorists and commuters.

Abapo disclosed that some roads being re-blocked are still serviceable, even if the DPWH claimed these were damaged due to the 2013 earthquake.

The DPWH have been implementing re-blocking works, but other roads or road shoulders remained not being paved yet as needed, Abapo said. He believed that there's not much road to be re-blocked because these are still usable, and contended that funds should have been used for cementing other roads instead.

Abapo described as destruction, referring to the "punching" of concrete highways along Ubay and Getafe towns, the interior part between Catigbian and Tubigon towns, and the one located at Barangay Buenavista, between Dagohoy and Carmen towns.

The PB then approved en masse Abapo's motion for a resolution requesting Bohol's Office of the Governor to make representation to DPWH Secretary Mark Villar to revisit of review the agency's findings on some roads it said needs re-blocking.

The Philippine Information Office-Bohol earlier reported: "Good roads were punched and bored, (but) abandoned rendering the highway into alternating single lane and there was no one helping man the traffic."

PB Member Ricky Masamayor, in his report as chairman of the public works committee, said DPWH consultant, Engineer Masatoshi Kawahara, had admitted that there were delays in the implementation of bridge projects, which the latter explained as caused by "technical problems."

Masamayor quoted Kawahara's reasons that "designs for bridge approaches need new and high technology to prevent accidents or undesirable occurrences considering that Bohol's kind of soil is prone to liquefaction especially during earthquake or seismic event."

Kawahara also cited bad weather conditions had hindered the target date of completion. "Aggregates and skilled manpower come from Leyte by barge, hence, a factor also adding to the loss of time," He further contended that it "took time to cut trees to clear the way for detour bridges. Permission had to be secured, and cutting down the affected trees are really time consuming."

Masamayor said that, despite these snags, the contractor promised to finish the bridges — particularly the Anislag in Maribojoc, and Hinawanan and Palo in Loay -in August this year. These projects are funded by a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (73 percent), and the Philippine government (27 percent). (FREEMAN)