Delay in payment of right-of-way claims seen

Secretary Simeon Datumanong of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said yesterday that payment for expropriated lands may now take longer to process following the revival of the controversy over the alleged scam in the payment of road right-of-way (RROW) claims.

Datumanong was referring to reports that certain DPWH officials and employees, particularly in Mindanao, were padding the cost of RROW payments, which was why claims have suspiciously risen to a staggering P7 billion in the past two years from only less than P500 million in the years 1997 to 1999.

The DPWH secretary decried the allegations as politically motivated. Expropriations or RROWs are undertaken to acquire the property of land owners where roads are to be constructed by the government.

In a statement, Sen. Ramon Revilla, chairman of the Senate Public Works Committee who earlier filed Resolution No. 440 seeking to probe the validity of RROW claims, said that the scam was exposed by DPWH insiders themselves, who claimed that a syndicate is manufacturing fictitious claims, especially in Central Mindanao, where hundreds are claiming lands supposedly owned by only a few.

Even legitimate claims fall prey to this syndicate, Revilla said, as DPWH insiders who tipped off the government regarding the scam disclosed that genuine claimants are being asked by the syndicate to hand over at least 50 percent of their claims as "processing fee."

Datumanong, however, said that the allegations are not new and have long been under investigation but he is taking them seriously.