Everything’s above board, says bridge program chief

ANGELES CITY- "We have nothing to be ashamed of. We did everything above board."

Thus countered Emil Sadain, executive director of the Philippine Bridge Program dubbed Tulay ng Pangulo, after a group called the Sinag Bayan Foundation, headed by former Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Carlos Padilla, accused him, former Public Works and Highways Secretary Florante Soriquez and other officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) of allegedly "wasting" some P9 billion earmarked for the construction of bridges nationwide.

In an exclusive interview with The STAR, Sadain clarified that the Tulay ng Pangulo program had a budget of about P8.3 billion, consisting of a P7.5-billion loan from the British government and P779 million in counterpart funds from the national government.

In fact, Sadain said the government was even able to save P924 million from the 451 bridges so far constructed under the program nationwide.

Of these savings, P384 million is now being used for the construction of the flyover in Malolos, Bulacan.

Sinag Bayan claimed the bridges were rushed prior to the 2004 presidential elections and that their sites lacked "any clear basis."

"The program was initially launched during the Estrada administration but the loan was released only in the last quarter of 2001. Soriquez and I got involved in the project only in 2003," Sadain said.

Sadain was Soriquez’s assistant in the bridge program until he was appointed its executive director early this year.

Sadain said the bridge program used to be under the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Office of the President until it was transferred to the DPWH in February 2002.

Then DPWH Undersecretary Salvador Pleyto was appointed to head the program, he said.

When Soriquez replaced Pleyto in 2003 with him appointed his assistant later in the year, Sadain said they uncovered a backlog of about 40 percent in the implementation of the program and that its employees were unpaid.

"The program targeted the completion of a total of 526 bridges nationwide in five years up to December this year. The construction of the bridges is by ‘administration,’ meaning the DPWH itself is the one constructing the bridges," he said.

When he and Soriquez took over, Sadain said the program’s employees were paid their back wages and the construction even went beyond schedule.

"By 2004, we were 30 percent ahead of schedule and this year, we expect to complete the remaining 75 bridges even before December," he said.

Sadain denied Sinag Bayan’s allegations that all the bridges, regardless of length, cost the same.

"They should check the records. The cost depends on the length of the steel bridges which is, on the average, P400,000 per meter," he said.

He said the government’s counterpart fund per bridge is only about P2 million which he insisted is lower than the P8 million to P10 million which the government usually puts in as counterpart fund in other foreign-funded projects.

"And these bridges are not the usual bridges. They are the steel-type bridges made of materials from Great Britain. (Their) capacity is 25 percent higher than the usual bridges being constructed by the DPWH," Sadain said.

He said the bridges built under the program are permanent ones but can be dismantled and moved to other areas.

Sinag Bayan claimed that random inspections of some of the completed two-lane bridges showed that they were leading to nowhere, and that some were even built in areas where no access roads exist.

Sadain, however, said the local government units concerned were the ones who identified the sites under their rural development program.

"The critics of the project showed video footage of some bridges purportedly leading to nowhere, but this was taken last year. If they go back to the areas, they will find out that new farm-to-market roads have been built beyond the bridges," he said.

"There are instances where a bridge has to be built before the road because that’s the only way to bring heavy equipment to the other side of the river so as to construct the connecting road," Sadain said.

Sadain attributed the savings from the bridge program to the DPWH’s constructing the bridges itself without resorting to contractors, and the cooperation of local officials who reduced expenses by identifying and preparing the sites.

"The projects also helped generate local employment since the local government units were the ones who held the biddings for the labor needed, funded from the government’s P2-million counterpart fund for every bridge," he said.

"We get grateful responses from the local governments and the farmer-beneficiaries, so I wonder why it’s not them but outsiders who are complaining," Sadain said.

He, however, admitted "isolated lapses," including an instance where the other end of a bridge reportedly landed on a private property.

"These cases are isolated and I have been told that the mayor of one town is negotiating with the property owner so the bridge could lead to a farm-to-market road," he said.