Photos of the broken reinforced concrete deck girder at the ongoing Virac boulevard bridge in San Vicente should not just earn angry comments from netizens on social media.
The incident should be subject of privilege speeches by attention-hungry legislators in Virac and at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, including those who are contractors in disguise if they still have shame.
It should likewise earn a second but more critical look from the Provincial Project Monitoring Committee, that group composed of government officials and NGO representatives that earned an award from the defunct National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) for being the best in the Bicol region.
What is at stake here is the safety of the public, who will be using the bridge, as well as the reputation of the contractor and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
Let us assume the worst: the contractor completes the bridge, the DPWH regional office inaugurates the boulevard and its three bridges with some national official as guest, only for this third bridge to collapse in the next few months, taking down with it precious lives and the good (?) name of the DPWH.
Insiders say that there were no issues with the way the first and second bridges along the same boulevard despite their construction allegedly being undertaken by two politicians at the time.
These two spans are still standing despite getting battered by huge waves in the past two super typhoons.
Although one cannot entirely claim that there were no shortcuts taken during their construction, it appears that the two bridges were built according to standard specifications of the contract.
Now, even the DPWH itself could not say with certainty that this third bridge, 30 meters long and costing probably more than P50 million, is being implemented in accordance with the contract, judging by the broken girder itself.
But it would take more than a picture and a viral Facebook post to make the DPWH admit this.
No, the people of Catanduanes cannot depend on engineers of the DPWH Catanduanes District Engineering Office to actually look into the matter and deliver an accurate report.
Under existing protocol of the department, the local DPWH cannot interfere with a project being implemented by the regional office.
And we should not expect the project engineer assigned by the DPWH regional office to have been at the construction site to oversee the contractor’s activities 24/7.
As one former DPWH official told the Tribune, the project engineers deployed by DPWH RO-5 to Catanduanes are from the Bicol mainland and the first thought on their minds once they arrive at the project site is how soon they could come back home.
So, it should not surprise members of the PPMC is the project engineer at the site, if they ever catch him at work, know almost nothing about how the broken girder and the 26 others like it were constructed and if they were built and prestressed according to standard specifications.
As soon as the Catanduanes PMC inspects the bridge project and issues its report, both the provincial government and the Virac LGU should request the DPWH to undertake a more exhaustive investigation into the matter, including rigorous testing of the broken girder and some of the other completed girders, to find out if they are structurally fit to be used in the bridge.
And this investigation should likewise be joined by representatives from the PPMC, the DPWH Catanduanes DEO, and the engineering offices of the province and the capital town.
Such a move would align with the call of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during the SONA for those involved in shady flood control projects to have shame, especially since most of Congress members in the Batasan audience are ones responsible.
Perhaps, it is now the right time for local engineers in the private sector and civic minded citizens to take active action against corruption and other shenanigans in public infrastructure.
One could organize soonest a “Bantay Ampaw” coalition or the like that could monitor projects of the local governments, the DPWH and other national agencies, post photos and videos on a dedicated Facebook, and, with the help of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) chapter, file airtight cases against those responsible with the Ombudsman or any appropriate court.
Taxpayers should not sit idly by and watch contractors, government engineers and their politician backers manipulate biddings and enrich themselves at the expense of the people.