Construction materials looted in Cabanatuan

CABANATUAN CITY — Unscrupulous residents of this city have been looting equipment in the construction sites of the P300-million World Bank-funded Cabanatuan City Comprehensive Drainage Project of the city, hampering ongoing works which are being rushed before the onset of the rainy season.

Mayor Jay Vergara has appealed to the perpetrators to stop their nefarious activities to avert any delay in the completion of the project which is designed to mitigate perennial flooding problems in the city. Vergara expressed concern over the alarming frequency of looting which has taken place in the construction sites.

The mayor was aghast to find out that some materials installed along road shoulders, where the drainage pipes are being installed, were carted away by the looters, including warning signs, barricades, manhole covers, steel plates and bulbs.

Emy Feliciano of the city’s public information office (PIO) said that some "enterprising people" have made a business out of these materials which were left unguarded in the various construction sites particularly at nighttime. "Imagine even pieces of plywood serving as warning signs are not spared by the looters," she said.

Vergara said construction of the drainage project is 55 percent finished and if plans don’t miscarry, it will be completed by September.

Laborers are working round-the-clock on three eight-hour shifts to beat the deadline imposed by Vergara.

The project was funded by a P300-million loan from the World Bank. It was called a "comprehensive drainage project" as it also features sewerage and wastewater treatment facilities, said to be the first of its kind among cities in Third World Countries, including cities in Cambodia, Laos, India and Thailand.

Vergara said the looting has caused some vehicular accidents in the construction sites since some of these sites don’t have warnings signs.— Manny Galvez