Potholes, weak bridges and broken beams

The Department of Public Works and Highways is currently responsible for the planning, design, construction and maintenance of infrastructure, especially the national highways, flood control and water resources development system, and other public works in accordance with national development objectives.

The DPWH is guided by its quality policy that states their commitment to provide quality, safe, and environment-friendly public infrastructure facilities that will improve the life of every Filipino; comply with all requirements and to continually improve effectiveness and efficiency in serving the public. The agency endeavors to implement the right projects at the right cost determined through transparent and competitive bidding; with the right quality, according to international standards; delivered right on time through close monitoring of project implementations; and carried out by the right people who are competent and committed to uphold the values of public service, integrity, professionalism, excellence, and teamwork.

If the agency is able to sustain this quality policy, by 2030, it will be an effective and efficient government agency, improving the life of every Filipino through quality infrastructure. It will be able to achieve its mission of providing and managing quality infrastructure facilities and services responsive to the needs of the Filipino people in the pursuit of national development objectives.

The question is, is DPWH able to fulfill its mandate as stated in its mission? Years have passed since the agency was established, yet, up to the present time, potholes on the roads, broken bridges, the absence of roads for easy access of people, are still very much present and affecting the daily life of the Filipinos. The lack of quality infrastructure that will provide efficient service to the different communities has remained to be a problem far from being solved.

Visibility of the DPWH people remains inconsistent. It is a fact that it is only during pre-election time that we see road repairs, bridges being reinforced for safety. The sad part is that most of these projects are left unfinished long before the newly-elected government officials take their oath of office and start work. Just look around you and observe.

What makes the DPWH ineffective in the conduct of its work? Obviously, it is corruption!  In the case of the DPWH, the agency has identified the areas that are seen to be prone to corruption: procurement of civil works, consultancy services, goods and materials, quality of infrastructure projects, project implementation, and organizational structure. In recent months the agency saw the need to take the most applicable and appropriate steps to address corruption and to institutionalize reforms.

Sadly, given the recent incidents involving the DPWH and its work, it is almost impossible to believe that corruption in the agency will ever be curtailed. Ricardo Ramos, executive director of the Citizens Infrastructure Integrity Watchdog (Infrawatch) shared with me an interesting information about a 24-classroom building he saw in Baguio said to be worth P48 million, when in fact it could have been built for only P28 million.

Further amazing prevarications from DPWH: They could have saved Otis Bridge by repair and preventive maintenance either from the time of GMA (2001-2010) or P-Noy (2011-2016). It would have just cost around P5 million to less than P10 million. But the DPWH wanted a bigger project with a much higher cost reaching P37 million or about P39 million more than the repair and maintenance. They had at least 15 years to do it from 2001 to 2015! But the DPWH did not!

Corruption still continues in the department to the silence of its new chief and President Duterte.  Why hasn’t the President spoken about this in the past 24 months?  Why hasn’t he harassed the DPWH officers knowing it is allegedly the most corrupt department, as he usually accosts his officers? How true is it that district engineers and regional directors are allegedly asking for 3% advance of project cost to get DPWH projects? Otis Bridge is an anomaly in the sense that the DPWH deliberately allowed it to further deteriorate, so they can build a new bridge that will cost P30 million more than if it will only be repaired and reinforced.

The 365-meters Lisap bridge that PRRD inaugurated on April 3, 2018 in Bongabon, Oriental Mindoro is also allegedly riddled with corruption. There are talks that the bridge is not even needed. It cost the taxpayers a whooping P324 million.  Could this also be obscenely overpriced?

To backtrack a bit, remember the Virac Airport Passenger Terminal Bldg (PTB)?  It took two years and four months to complete at P39 million. Delays cited due to Typhoon Nina in December 2016. However, even if the typhoon caused a four-month delay, the PTB could have been completed in 18 months or December 2017 if CAAP of DOTR got the right contractor. Why does Secretary Tugade and Villar allow this? And we all thought change has come!

What about the collapse of the Cavite flyover that cost the contractor P12 million? What caused the girder to collapse? This is the first time I have heard of such a thing happening. The Skyway on top of the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) is about 20 kms. in length and there was no such incident of a girder that collapsed. This one done by a DPWH contractor is less than 1.9 kms. The flyover is reported to be 700 meters long. If you deduct the approaches on both side, the length of the girder must only be about 500 linear meters. Perhaps it is time someone check the track record of the DPWH contractors.

Top Gear, an automobile magazine noted that recent accidents on the motorway could be caused by “inferior-quality railing, non-standard railing height, irregular patch on the Skyway pavement, strong crosswinds, reckless driving and mechanical failure. It added that by this time and with the accidents happening on the Skyway, its management should have conducted “an authoritative test” to simulate the accidents. “As they say: Once is an accident; twice is coincidence, thrice is a trend. More than thrice is, well, sheer negligence,” Top Gear added.

On July 8, torrential monsoon rains and high-speed driving were also blamed for the Strada accident on the southbound direction of the Skyway where the driver and a passenger were saved from falling a few meters from the elevated expressway. But two years ago, 21 passengers of a Don Mariano Transit bus were not as lucky as they were killed after the public utility vehicle plunged to the service road below it. Why were the safety barriers so low?

Over the past 24 months under the Duterte administration, the DPWH has done nothing to address the safety issues on barriers (guard rails) at the Skyway, viaducts, flyovers and bridges in the country. Same thing on the roadside of hills and mountains. There are no standard safety barriers to help keep the vehicles from falling down in case of accidents.

Mr. President it is time you address the DPWH issues for the safety and protection of our citizens.