Last week, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan passed a resolution urgently requesting DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon to immediately replace the officer-in-charge of the Catanduanes District Engineering Office, who was appointed just a few days before then Sec. Manuel Bonoan resigned.
The provincial board recommended to the secretary that the choice be limited to qualified Catandunganons who are not affiliated with representative of the Lone District of Catanduanes, whose name the measure’s sponsor chose not to mention.
OIC-DE Vivian Biaco’s impending early removal from her post is based on the well-founded belief that the Catanduanes DEO is effectively controlled and influenced by the solon and his wife “popularly known as Sandara,” such that it led to the termination of veteran job order workers and the placement of engineers on “floating” status for political reasons and for failing to follow orders.
The situation has compromised the impartiality, integrity and independence of the DPWH in the province, PBM Edwin Tanael stressed, as it is being used as a political and economic arm of the congressman instead of serving its true purpose of delivering quality public works projects.
It urged the DPWH to appoint a son or daughter of Catanduanes “who understands the unique geographic and socio-economic challenges of the island-province, and who will serve with transparency and accountability, free from undue political influence.”
One of these qualified islanders, the resolution said, is assistant DE Noland Claro Guerrero, who is among the four DEs and two assistant DEs in the last four years who have since been exiled to a small corner of the DPWH regional office reserved for “floating” officials.
Far from being viewed as an imposition on the already overburdened and harassed DPWH chief, the SP resolution calling for OIC-DE Biaco’s relief is actually appropriate at this time when the public works department and its officials are under intense public scrutiny.
Tanael and like-minded board members recognize that like the Provincial Engineering Office at the LGU level, the DPWH district office is under the influence of the district’s representative in the House.
From the time of former Cong. Leandro B. Verceles Jr. to the recent short stint of Rep. Hector Sanchez, the district engineers generally operated with minimum interference.
True, most of the biddings were of the “zarzuela” variety but the DEs then allowed open, competitive biddings, especially when the solon’s chosen contractor failed to convince interested rivals to back out.
But in recent years, Catanduanes congressmen went so far as asking the DPWH regional director to transfer top district officials to the region or other districts in Bicol and backing candidates for promotion or appointment to district positions.
It has so worsened that the current congressman and his wife allegedly wield so much influence to be able to cause the appointment or termination of scores of job order workers, including engineers, and put recalcitrant permanent personnel in the virtual freezer.
What the honorable legislators, as well as the public, want to see now is a DPWH district office free from political influence that is “undue,” meaning at a level that is more than is necessary, acceptable, or reasonable.
If this is the primary consideration of the SP’s appeal, the appointment of a new DE would have to be simultaneous with the replacement of the current DPWH Bicol regional director as well as the assistant director at the barest minimum.
RD Virgilio Eduarte, recently tagged in the Congress probe into the anomalous flood control projects, has been very accommodating to the requests of the province’s representative.
One such accommodation made by the Samar native is his acquiescence in the transfer of billions worth of projects supposed to be implemented by the Catanduanes DEO to the regional office.
Twice, this had the effect of rendering the DEO personnel idle for lack of projects and deprived the island of economic and livelihood opportunities, with construction workers forced to look for jobs in Metro Manila and elsewhere.
It may be too optimistic to expect Sec. Dizon to act on the SP resolution and appoint any qualified DPWH official to the post.
Whether or not he or she is a Catandunganon, all we can do at this point is hope that future DEs would not become a collector of “obligasyon” like their predecessors who occupied the post and got kicked out just the same.