It is amazingly shocking how much precious funds the Philippine government wastes on infrastructure projects such as flood control projects favored by members of Congress, instead of water supply systems and weather monitoring facilities.
For this year alone, more than half of the P3.55 billion allocated for the DPWH Catanduanes District Engineering Office, or nearly P2 billion, is being spent for flood control projects.
Such projects, usually constructed along river banks, is most favored by congressmen and their chosen contractors because there’s no need to haul aggregates (gravel and sand as well as boulders are right in the river), the contractor and the project engineer can cheat easily (the projects are often far from populated areas and no one checks how deep the steel piles are sunk), and the congressman can demand as much as 30 percent of the project cost as SOP.
In contrast, the construction of water supply systems got a measly P21 million or less than one percent of the total Catanduanes DEO funding for 2024.
A check of the project list shows several hundred million projects, all of them implemented by the scandal-plagued DPWH Regional Office: P100 million each for the Construction of Flood Control Structure in Buyo, Gogon Sirangan, Ibong Sapa and Simamla, all in Virac; P200 million each for the Construction and/or Rehabilitation of Flood Control Structure in Hicming, Sto. Domingo and Pajo Baguio in Virac, Obi in Caramoran, and Sitio Tagbak in Paraiso, San Miguel; P250 million for Imelda Boulevard in Virac; P100 million for the MICES/Primary Health Center in Virac; Construction of River Control Structure, Osmena, Baras, P100 million; Construction of Flood Control Structure along Cabugao-Binanuahan Section, Bato, P102 million; and Construction of Flood Control Structure along Bato River (Poblacion and Sipi), P101 million.
These mega-projects alone, most of them for flood control structures of dubious quality, have a combined funding of P1.653 billion.
To the many who have criticized PAGASA for its alleged failure to warn Bicolanos of the deluge brought by Tropical Storm “Kristine,” remember that since November 2020 when super typhoon “Rolly” ravaged the southern part of Catanduanes, the destroyed Buenavista Doppler Radar weather station has yet to be rehabilitated for lack of funds.
For years now, PAGASA officials has been negotiating with the Japanese government for another P300 million grant for the radar facility but the effort has stalled, initially on the failure of the Philippine government to provide funding for the 20 percent counterpart, and then the non-inclusion of the facility in the priority listing.
As a local PAGASA weather expert lamented, the facility only needs P150 million, instead of the original P300 million, for its equipment to be replaced by a newer, more updated C-Band Dual Polarization Solid State Weather Radar from the same Japanese manufacturer.
It should have been easy for our representative in Congress, Rep. Eulogio R. Rodriguez, to allocate less than 10 percent of the P2 billion for flood control projects for the rehabilitation of the Bato Doppler Radar station.
A fully operational facility could have provided the Virac Synoptic Station, as well as PAGASA central office, with a more accurate estimate of the heavy rains brought by “Kristine” leading to earlier evacuation warnings.
The solon, who critics claim opens his mouth only during budget hearings to request for funds from agencies, should have also provided funding for the rehabilitation of the Tabaco Port passenger terminal where, for five miserable days last week, more than 500 stranded passengers wallowed in desperation.
Another issue that the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council chaired by Gov. Joseph C. Cua is how PAGASA can have access to the data gathered by Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) installed by local government units including the Capitol.
Instead of keeping the information for themselves, the local DRRMOs should share it with the local PAGASA office so it could provide better forecasts of local weather such as thunderstorms and heavy precipitation.
At this time when climate change has worsened the effects of tropical disturbances, it is hugely important for all stakeholders to act in unison and help each other mitigate such destructive impacts.