Lahar victims denounce MPC housing contractor

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Exactly 82 days before it folds up on Dec. 31, the Mt. Pinatubo Commission (MPC) continues to be hounded by controversies as lahar victims urged yesterday the blacklisting of a construction firm who built their now deteriorating homes at the Sta. Lucia resettlement in Magalang town at the cost of some P600 million.

"We live in houses with hollow walls and misdirected electrical connections," said lahar victim Nicanor Marucut, head of the Sta. Lucia chapter of Ugnayan, a group representing lahar-displaced folk in this province.

Ugnayan chairman Frank Mangulabnan urged yesterday the blacklisting of Baque Corp. which was awarded the P600-million contract for the construction of some 8,000 housing units at the three phases of the Sta. Lucia resettlement in 1997.

Ugnayan leaders urged the blacklisting of the firm amid plans of the MPC to construct 1,000 more housing units for families still in evacuation centers, at the cost of P60 million.

Two hundred of the units are to be constructed at the Madapdap resettlement in Mabalacat town, and another 800 units at the Pandakaki resettlement in Mexico.

While the two projects have been awarded to the 51st engineering brigade of the Army, lahar victims have received reports that parts of the construction work are slated to be sub-contracted to Baque.

Lahar victims who have been given homes in Sta. Lucia said that their housing units built by Baque were substandard.

"In many cases, concrete walls have turned out to be hollow. Even electrical connections were faulty," said Ligaya Galang, spokesperson of the Sta. Lucia Ugnayan chapter. She said that some residents have reported that power switches intended for the main section of housing units light up toilets instead.

Sta. Lucia residents also said that Baque Corp. was fully paid for the entire resettlement project despite its failure to finish phase three of the resettlement site with some 800 housing units.

Some of the units, they said, are without toilet bowls and doorknobs even as the tank for the area’s water system is missing.

Engineer Rolando Danganan, chief of the MPC engineering administration, said that Baque was paid some P212 million for Sta. Lucia’s phase 1, P286 million for phase 2, and P102 million for phase 3.

He said that while Baque was the contractor for the Sta. Lucia project, the National Housing Authority (NHA) acted as project supervisor and engineering manager. "For this role, the NHA got two percent of the project cost," Danganan said.

Danganan confirmed plans to sub-contract the P60-million new housing projects at Madapdap and Pandakaki, but he said he was not aware that Baque was being considered.

"The plan seems to sub-contract the construction of the 1,000 units to the lahar victims themselves," he said.