The damage to a city road has to be paid

Early last month I wrote, in this column, my observation that a construction company while working on the concreting of a road in a mountain barangay could have been directly responsible for the destruction of a stretch of another road in a still another barangay. But, I composed my article in such a way that I would not sound like an alarmist yet still be able to prod city hall authorities to initiate an investigation and probably put a stop to the damage being continually inflicted. Before my dismay of city hall inaction consume me, let me back track a little.

I frequently go to the mountain barangays. Of late, I have been visiting Barangay Paril passing thru Binaliw and Mabini. In fact, in the last Saturday of December 2011, we shared some blessings with residents of Sitio Baugo.

When we drove thru that portion of the road between Barangays Binaliw and Mabini, we noticed some fresh cracks on the asphalt. Those cracks started to appear somewhere beyond the Binaliw Elementary School. In our mind, the damage looked to have been inflicted by the impact of a heavy object crashing unto the surface of the road. To visualize it, that object could be a ball of steel, the ones used by demolition crews to tear a building apart, which was allowed to fall freely from, say ten feet above the ground. But, there were many such cracks along the way that we concluded they could have been caused by passing heavy equipment units.

Also, on the same stretch of the road, there are portions that have yet to be concreted or coated by asphalt. But, in those recent times that we visited Paril, driving thru them was not very difficult. In that trip of ours last December, there were also telltale signs of destruction similar to those we found on the asphalted portions of the road.

Anyway, shortly after we negotiated thru several such damaged parts of the road, we saw two large trucks. They were designed to carry pre-mixed concrete. We learned later that they just emptied their cargo in a project somewhere in Barangay Cambinocot. We suspected that those trucks, when still loaded with tons of concrete, were the ones that caused the road to crack. Upon inquiry, our suspicion was validated. People from whom we inquired for some observation, pointed the blame on those trucks.

We know that the construction outfit continues to drive their vehicles, loaded with pre-mixed concrete, thru this road. I can say without fear of contradiction that before these heavy equipment units came rolling thru, this segment of the road was still passable. Today, these portions of the road have deteriorated beyond most man’s cruelimagination. To say that potholes are cavernous is not an understatement. These are both jagged and deep.

When I first wrote about this problem, I used the legal term, Tort. My sight was focused on the way our civil code conceptualizes it. Accordingly, whoever by an act or omission, causes damage to another, there being fault of negligence, shall be responsible for the damage.

The drivers must have realized what they have done. True, government poured only a thin layer of asphalt when officials were still campaigning in 2010. The work then was unquestionably “consuelo de bobo”, but the drivers knew that the asphalt coating was no match to the weight of their vehicles.Right on the very first day that they rolled their carriers in that area, they saw what they had done.

I am also quite sure that the drivers informed their employers that they were damaging the road. And such information fell on deaf ears. That is why today the asphalt coating of almost the entire road stretch is pulverized. If this sounds more than an alarm, it is because the destruction of the road is an accomplished fact.

An investigation must, albeit late, be started now. His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Michael L. Rama, has to form such investigative team ASAP with specific instructions to wind it up fast. If their findings jibe with our layman’s observation, let our mayor demand from the construction company full compensation for the damage done.