Caloocan DPWH execs face probe

A Caloocan City councilor has sought an investigation to determine if the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is liable in the drowning of three young boys in a creek last month.

In his resolution, Caloocan City Second District Councilor Benedicto Gonzales Jr. quoted residents who claimed that the DPWH and its contractor have abandoned a drainage project in the creek, where the victims, one of whom was a three-year-old boy, drowned at the height of a heavy downpour.

Victims Ysmael Ponseca, 3, and Benedict Torneros, 10, both residents of Barangay 19, and Danny Boy Lopez, Jr., 14, a freshman high school student and resident of 212 Interior 5, Doña Rita Street, Barangay 19, drowned in the swollen creek at the height of a heavy downpour last Aug. 24.

The victims were reportedly playing in a garbage-filled canal which was part of a drainage project of the DPWH.

Gonzales’ resolution authorizes the committee on police, civil, and military relations, and the committee on engineering and public works "to immediately conduct an investigation, in aid of legislation, on the recent accident that resulted in the death of the three boys due to the defective DPWH project at Don Benito Creek, Barangay 19, Caloocan City."

Ponseca, Torneros, and Lopez tried to retrieve a ball they were playing with from the creek but they were swept away by the strong current.

The bodies of Ponseca and Torneros were recovered in the evening while that of Lopez was found the next day.

According to Gonzales, witnesses claimed that the DPWH failed to put safety railings or devices in the unfinished culvert that could have warned residents and pedestrians, especially during flashfloods.

The DPWH had been paving over the Don Benito Creek culvert but failed to complete the project, leaving a portion of the canal open, explained Gonzales, the council’s majority floor leader.

"If we find liabilities on the part of the DPWH and its contractor, we will file appropriate criminal charges against them due to their negligence (and) to avoid the occurrence of similar incidents," Gonzales said.

The STAR tried but failed to reach the local DPWH office for comment.

Aside from the three young boys, two young lovers also drowned two years ago because of another uncompleted drainage project, "pointing to a pattern of negligence on the part of the DPWH and/or its contractors," Gonzalez said in his resolution.

The victims were on board a pedicab when it fell into a creek on L. Langit Street in Barangay 29. The pedicab driver was rescued but the couple drowned, their bodies were later recovered in Tondo, Manila. – Nikko Dizon