Is this road project abandoned?

Today is the second day of a seminar among some local government officials coming outside of Cebu City, which I help organize for the Department of the Interior and Local Government. Regional Director Pedro A. Noval, Jr., welcomed the participants in a heart-warming message yesterday. We are assisted by the Office of the Ombudsman (Visayas), with Assistant Ombudsman Virginia P. Santiago giving a sensitive lecture on Public Accountability and the Civil Service Commission, with Region 7 Director Judith Chicano, doing an exposition on Civil Service matters. Let us welcome our visitors to our city and show them our famous brand of hospitality.

 Speaking of local officials, I met Barangay Captain Escobarte of Barangay Paril this city, few days ago. More accurately, I sought him because I wanted to bring to his attention the status of a road project towards his barangay.

 This project, my memory not failing, was commenced sometime in August last year. It was supposed to start from the border of the two adjoining barangays of Mabini and Paril towards the center of the latter barangay. Relief came to me when I first noticed the construction. Having remembered that I wrote about the sad condition of the road months back and the consequent difficulty of the residents of that far flung barangay to negotiate to the city, I thought that the new city administration was responsive to its constituents’ needs.

 The length of the project could, more or less, be a kilometer and so I thought that by the end of 2010, travel to that part of the city would no longer be very stressful. Perhaps, I had a more unrealistic concept of how to pace the construction effort for which reason I estimated the time frame to be only that long. I saw though that the work gangs were not consistent. At times, I would see them working, but there were instances when they were nowhere to be found.

 By early December, there were no workers tinkering with the project anymore. Yes, there were materials visible on the site. In fact, there were even some portions that were already concreted although the sad part was that sharp steel bars and nails protruded from them. The reports coming to me of the injuries suffered by some travelers from those sharp objects and the damage to their vehicles always warned me every time I approached those areas. There was an occasion when my old rickety vehicle, usually reliable for that kind of a terrain, got stuck in the mud.

 That was what I wanted to see Capt. Escobarte for. It was my intention to ask him why the road project seemed abandoned for two months already. Or, that if it was not abandoned, why were there no more workers on hand. Had the funds been already exhausted, would have been my next question. And if the answer were in the affirmative, I would have asked him if he already made progress towards having the same completed.

 When I met the barangay chief, I learned that he, too, was exasperated by the snail paced effort of the contractor. Being a new captain, he was swamped with queries from over eager supporters of his. Unfortunately, he was not in the position to provide accurate information. For the same reason of his inexperience, he was groping for the right answers. But, it looked to me that he tried very hard. His voters should be proud of his apparent diligence.

 In our meeting, the captain was in a better light. He had already the occasion to talk with the contractor (sincerely, I was told) and he informed the latter of the accidents caused by the non-completion of the work. Thus, he was more prepared to tell me that the contractor (Joe Builders or something?) blamed the rainy weather for the delay.

 It was a legal resort. No person would be liable for those events that cannot be foreseen or even if foreseen, are inevitable. Fortuitous events, the lawyers are prone to posit. But, then that legal excuse was not anchored on fact. The rains, indeed, came and they really poured flooding, at times, some stretches of the project. However, the extremely wet days came only in the latter part of December. By that time, the workers had long vanished leading us to conclude that the project had been abandoned.

 If that be the case, someone must be held to answer for the unfinished work. However it may be evaluated, there is more damage to the road in that status than when the concreting was commenced and so funds were wasted.

 So, I am writing about this project in the hope that His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, send a team to check on this project. I am sure that if the contractor learns of such an investigative effort by the mayor’s office, he will not delay any longer the completion of the concreting of that road. How about it mayor?

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