Why chop up one roadwork into 12?

Did Gloria Arroyo’s advisers consider it before egging her to go on and name a new Chief Justice during the election ban on appointments? She could go to jail for six years for violating the Omnibus Election Code. She can also be barred perpetually from public office, including her coveted congressional seat.

 Has Rep. Matias Defensor pondered that he too can go to jail and be booted out of office? That is, if he or any other member of the Judicial and Bar Council incite Arroyo to illegally install a top magistrate during the election ban?

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Chopped-up roads blight Eastern Samar. Under Gov. Ben Evardone the province recently graduated from the country’s 20 poorest list. But its arteries remain in the same sorry state: alternately concreted and unpaved for long stretches. Petty politics is behind it. Politicos with access to big bucks in Manila vindictively withhold roadworks from locales of rivals. Last year Evardone twitted Cong. Teodolo Coquilla for horribly leaving undone a dozen sections of the circumferential highway. Rutty, muddy roads dampen down commerce and tourism, Evardone reminded their rep to the central government. Malacañang stepped in to mediate the quarrel. About P500 million was allocated in the 2010 national budget finally to fix messy roads measuring over 20 kilometers through eight scenic towns. It would be the springboard for the struggling province’s bid for progress and prosperity.

But something unfunny happened on the way to the budget forum. Instead of being treated as one interconnection — to pave gaps in the one same highway — the project was cut up into 12 pieces. A couple of million pesos is to go to a bridge, double the amount to a road stretch right next to it, more millions to the next adjoining segment, and so on. The total is still P500 million, but completion would be piecemeal. Someone had rewritten the budget item in Congress and got it past the plenary. And that someone is likely to parcel the subcontracts to 12 favorite constructors — for the usual kickbacks. If that someone were running for reelection in May, the cash would be timely for the campaign. More so if he awards the cut-up projects before the election ban on public works starts on March 26.

There are clues to who the culprit is. And they’re on paper. As a rule, Dept. of Public Works and Highways district offices execute only projects worth up to P20 million. In rare instances they may implement up to P50 million, but only with special approval of the DPWH secretary. District engineers are usually protégés of congressmen. Projects costing P20 million to P200 million are done by DPWH regional offices; above P200 million, by the national office. In the case of Eastern Visayas, nine of the 12 chopped-up roadworks are valued at P20 million or less. Two are budgeted respectively at P40 million and P50 million, so requiring special assent, and the last is at P60 million, which automatically assigns it to the regional office. Submitted for special signature of DPWH acting Sec. Vic Domingo were the last three items, for execution by the district office. The request was signed by Eastern Samar district engineer Ernesto Paderes, and endorsed by Congressman Coquilla.

Domingo is resisting lobbies to sign the insolent request. Regional director Angelito Twano too is dismayed with a subordinate going above his head. Cutting up the projects not only is cost-ineffective and structurally unsound. It also violates the Procurement Reform Act. The law specifically prohibits the splitting of contracts into artificial segments to circumvent bidding or implementing rules. It was drafted by then-congressman, now Budget Sec. Rolando Andaya, who has yet to release the first centavo for the Samar projects that obviously are “in aid of reelection.”

There’s another oddity going on. Instead of purchasing construction materials, the Eastern Samar district office is busy fabricating street signs. To date, sources say, it has spent roughly P80 million from its budgets and Coquilla’s pork barrel for the signs, and not on more important cement, sand, gravel and re-bars.

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Thousands of international air travelers were incommoded Jan. 2 by the immigration bureau’s rash intro of a new arrival-departure card. And millions more will henceforth be required to use it for no clear reason than feed someone’s vanity.

The new form wastes public money. It is four times bigger than the old one, so presumably four times costlier. Precious spaces are left blank. Most tellingly, it carries on one-fourth of the back page the photos of Gloria Arroyo and immigration head Marcelino Libanan. Makes one wonder why they had their images plastered on a long-term form when their terms will expire June 30. Hmm, maybe it’s not just for vanity, but someone’s way to make a quick buck from paper and printing kickbacks. Or maybe they’re inadvertently showing they won’t be stepping down when they should.

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“The beauty seen by your eyes will sooner or later fade; the beauty perceived in the soul has an eternal capacity to stay.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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