Did ER Rodriguez Construction Corporation resume work on the P54-million Minaabat road opening project that the DPWH regional office now claims it terminated in November 2023?
This appears to be the case after the Tribune learned that DPWH Regional Director Virgilio Eduarte had already reported to Secretary Vince Dizon that the project was already terminated based on a report from the project engineer.
RD Eduarte submitted the report to the DPWH central office in reaction to the recent statement of TGP Congressman Jose J. Teves Jr. on the alleged irregular implementation of the project supposed to build an access road from the national highway at Villa Aurora, Viga to Minaabat beach in Sicmil, Gigmoto.
The partylist representative had learned that ERR had resumed work on the road project and sent a team to inspect the construction activities.
The director used as basis the Sept. 5, 2025 memorandum prepared by the project engineer, Engineer II Edwin A. Valenzuela, and noted by the Construction Division chief. Engineer V Alex L. Lacuna.
According to the memorandum, the Minaabat project was suspended from Nov. 1, 2023 up to Nov. 19, 2023 “because of Work Suspension Order No. 3 due to the scarcity of construction materials.”
Prior to this, the DPWH also issued two other work suspension orders, from Aug. 1, 2022 to Jan. 20, 2022 and from March 17, 2023 to July 19, 2023.
The memo also stated that the contractor’s physical accomplishment as of Nov. 19, 2023 was 66.65% compared to the scheduled accomplishment of 75.56%, for a slippage of negative 8.91%.
“In view of the suspension because of the above-cited reason, the implementing office terminated the contract on the ground of technical impossibility to implement the project,” Engr. Valenzuela claimed.
The project engineer also alleged that Cong. Teves’ Sept. 5, 2025 statement on the alleged 91% accomplishment of the project “was only sourced from social media posts circulating in Catanduanes” and reiterated that the project was already terminated on Nov. 20, 2023.
Also included in Valenzuela’s report to RD Eduarte was a certification from DPWH Chief Administrative Officer Ma. Teresa B. Armario that no payment was made for the Minaabat project to ER Rodriguez Construction Corporation as per accounting records.
The DPWH’s claim that it had already terminated the Minaabat contract in November 2023, however, does not tally with the Field Monitoring Report made by the Provincial Project Monitoring Committee (PPMC) following its inspection of the project on May 17, 2024.
In the presence of two engineers of DPWH Regional Office No. V – Engr. Lou Anne Panesa and Engr. Elijorge Manlangit, the PPMC said that work on the project was suspended at the time.
The documents submitted to the committee claimed that the work accomplishment as of monitoring was 91% according to the DPWH engineers.
However, the PPMC computed the actual accomplishment as only 64.5%, for a negative slippage of more than 15%.
At the time, the contract had already expired as of March 15, 2024 based on the revised completion date of the proposed Contract Extension No. 3, but the committee learned from the DPWH engineers that it had not been approved as of the date of inspection.
The extension was requested due to a right-of-way conflict with lot owners, with resurvey works for the revised route made and work on the road opening continues despite the lack of an approved contract extension.
The committee stated that this was in violation of Sec. 3, Annex E of Republic Act 9184 which provides that a contractor cannot commence work under any Change Order or Extra Work Order unless it has been approved by the head of the procuring entity.
Among the other violations noted by the PMCC were the use of substandard materials, including cracked concrete from road reblocking projects; violation of standard specifications; and, irregular and unrealistic cross sections in the plans resulting to bloated volumes of road excavation.
Last year, a complaint was filed before the Ombudsman by four residents of Gigmoto against RD Eduarte and Merlinda Rodriguez of ERR Construction Corp. over the allegedly overpriced Minaabat road project for violation of Section 3 (g) of Republic Act 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and the two provisions of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.