BAUKO, Mountain Province – An anti-crime and corruption watchdog in the region questioned the alleged substandard implementation of a P90 million flood control project in the Upper Chico river, particularly in Tipunan, Monamon Norte which was reportedly ruined way before the expiration of the project’s one year warranty period.
In his letter to Public works Secretary Mark Villar, Salvador Liked, Secretary-General of the Cordillera chapter of the Citizens Crime Watch (CCW-CAR), asked if the quality of the accomplished flood control project were tested before the contractor was paid.
“If the flood control project was not destroyed, will it contribute in efforts to uplift the living condition of the people in the area?,” Liked asked from the head of the public works department.
The CCW-CAR official urged Secretary Villar to investigate the matter on whether or not the project was paid after it was destroyed or was the 10 percent retention paid despite the project being destroyed.
The project was allegedly awarded by the Cordillera office of the Department of Public works and Highways (DPWH-CAR) to a Tarlac-based contractor who had a joint venture with a Mountain Province-based contractor.
Liked attached to his letter photos showing the massive destruction the project suffered which casts doubt on the design of the infrastructure and the quality of the accomplished works of the contractor, a waste of taxpayer’s money as the government will again have to spend millions of pesos to restore the scoured retaining wall of the flood control project.
According to them, the multi-million flood control project will no longer serve its purpose of preventing the farmlands of agriculture stakeholders from being ravaged by the swelling river during the rainy season because its main support that is the supposed sturdy retaining wall was washed away.
If the contractor implemented the flood control project properly, he asserted that it should not have suffered such tremendous damage with the waters from heavy rains almost every afternoon.
Liked assured the CCW-CAR will continue to be vigilant on the way public works contractors implement their awarded projects so that they will be compelled to work in accordance with prescribed standards instead of succumbing to the whims and caprices of politicians who continue to interfere in the implementation of projects by demanding huge percentages from the contractors leading the latter to sacrifice the quality of their projects just to satisfy the abusive officials.
He urged contractors who are already tired of these corrupt politicians to come out in the open and expose the same because it runs counter to the aggressive campaign of President Rodrigo R. Duterte against rampant corruption in the bureaucracy.
By HENT
