Aside from the congressman and the DPWH’s stern warning to infra project recipients to resolve Right-of Way (ROW) issues, there was one thing that proved enlightening, perhaps not to the participants, but to the discerning public.
During the DPWH Catanduanes District Engineering District’s discussion of the topic “Clarification for Various Project Request of Some Local Government Units in DPWH,” there was one subtopic that triggered a memory recall of a recent controversial project of the regional office.
But first, the DPWH official reminded Queen Maricel Inn crowd, including Mayor Honesto Tabligan II of Pandan, Mayor Sinforoso Sarmiento Jr. of Virac, Mayor Glenda Aguilar of Caramoran, and Mayor Juan Rodulfo of Bato, that the department’s budget is limited to national programs.
These programs include the National Road System and the Flood Management Program.
Excluded in the budget preparation are so-called Convergence and Special Support Program (CSSP), Basic Infrastructure Program (BIP) and other projects local in nature.
“These are composed largely of Local Projects with no national significance and should assigned/devolved to the LGUs,” a 2022 memorandum stressed.
On the other hand, a 2025 directive reiterated that BIP and SIPAG projects are intended to accommodate local priorities identified by legislator, with the total budget within the 30 percent of the “total legislative allocable.”
It reminded that only construction, rehabilitation, retrofitting, strengthening, or replacement activities are eligible under BIP and SIPAG.
Not covered are road repair, maintenance, asphalt overlay, road opening, re-blocking, and widening while flood mitigation projects must involve structural interventions only and should not include desilting, declogging, clearing or channelization.
It was made clear that any request for the covered projects must be made to the legislator of the district, in this case, Congressman Eulogio R. Rodriguez. No problem with that…
But in Department Order No. 23 issued in 2015, the DPWH mandated that flood control and drainage or slope protection projects must fall within any of the cited project types “in major or principal river basins.”
It clarified that the project must be part of an overall flood control master plan or feasibility study for the river basin or urban area in which the same is located.
The DPWH Catanduanes DEO was generous enough to state that the only principal rivers in Catanduanes are the Bato river and the Pajo river, both of which received more than a combined P1.5 billion in flood control projects in recent years.
If this was the policy with regards to flood control projects as early as 2015, why did the DPWH agree to implement over a billion pesos for a series of river road dikes along Hitoma river in barangay Obi, Caramoran from 2022 to 2025?
How was the main proponent, a partylist group headed by a powerful and well-connected solon, able to wangle the billion pesos from the national budget and allocate the same to a minor river system in faraway Caramoran?
An inquiry with the concerned local government units would lead to the conclusion that the projects, as completed, was never part of an overall flood control master plan.
Why, because there never was one, as even the barangay was not aware that it would receive such a massive infusion of funding for flood control projects that did not directly benefit the flood-prone village.
As an actual visit would show, the separate projects had different dike designs and even different heights, with one opposite the barangay proper at least twice the height of the existing structure protecting Obi.
Let this waste of scarce resources by the national government and undue enrichment of corrupt officials and contractors bedevil your mind during the Holy Week…