To the ordinary person, the list of infrastructure projects to be implemented in Catanduanes by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) would seem to be an uninteresting piece of government document.
But a closer scrutiny of the five pages furnished to this paper by a source turned up some interesting facts and insights.
As explained in today’s headline story of the Tribune, the General Appropriations Act, or Republic Act 9175, as passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate and signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., provided 108 infra projects for the island province with a total budget of P3,550,674,000.
This could have been higher, some industry sources say, as some party list groups and project funders have decided to move their multi-million projects elsewhere lest they be charged the “parking fee” of three percent demanded by a politician.
An analysis of the funding allocations for certain types of infra projects showed that 56 percent of the total infra budget, or exactly P500 million short of P2 billion, will be spent for 20 flood control projects and river control projects.
These two types of projects, along with seawalls and so-called shore protection works, are where the money for politicians in Congress, dubbed by ex-Pres. Rodrigo Duterte as the “most corrupt institution” in the Philippine government.
Remember that in the past, seawalls, shore protection works, flood or river control projects, and whatever they call it now, all featured reinforced concrete sloping sides with its inside filled with boulders or stone masonry.
Judging from the Change Order granted by the DPWH to the contractor of the Batalay seawall, boulders can now be replaced with earth fill, potentially exposing the structure to destruction during a storm surge,
Boulders cost a huge amount of money and replacing these with ordinary earth represents huge “savings” for the contractor and the sponsoring politician.
In contrast, the 2024 DPWH funding for Catanduanes allots less than one percent (exactly 0.59%) for eight water supply projects, which should have been given priority in the light of the strong El Niño phenomenon now affected the country, particularly the province.
To stress the point, the budget for 37 Multi-Purpose Buildings is a whopping P247 million, nearly 12 times what this administration will spend to provide potable water in this corner of the country.
This huge disparity in funding is but a reflection of the overall DPWH budget for this year, with a gargantuan P200 billion set aside for flood control projects.
The list also includes two allocations for the ongoing Catanduanes People’s Center being built within the Catanduanes State University.
One allocation for P30 million is for the second phase of the project to be implemented by the DPWH Regional Office and another P30 million for the third phase to be done by the Catanduanes DEO.
This will bring the cost of completing the building to about P90 million, which should make any taxpayer wonder what makes government buildings so expensive to construct these days.
What really stands out in the 2024 GAA infra list is that nearly three-fourth of the P3.55 billion, or exactly72 percent, will be implemented by the DPWH regional and central offices.
Of the P2.57 billion for just these two offices, P1.89 billion will be for the regional office.
And P1.43 billion of that amount are allocated for, you guessed it, flood and river control projects that range in funding from P100 million to P200 million.
This early, it is expected that local contractors would not be getting their share of these costly projects that would be bid out in the mainland.
Thus, for the second straight year, construction workers and everyone who benefit from local construction companies implementing DPWH projects – from instant carinderias to hardware stores – will again be the losers.
Just as the P3.55-billion infra kitty will aid politicians in the upcoming elections, so will this scheme to have majority of projects implemented by outside agencies affect the choices of voters in May 2025.