Perfectly good highways now undergoing 'repairs'

It was in all the papers yesterday. Transportation Sec. Mar Roxas has inked a deal for Japanese construction giant Takenaka Corp. to finish the remaining three percent of the NAIA-Terminal 3. This came after a year of negotiating with the company, as main constructor since 1998, to handle the last 23 phases of work.

There was something missing in Roxas’s announcement, however. No price was mentioned for Takenaka’s renegotiated deal. (No public bidding was made; Takenaka was the original main constructor since 1998, before the government expropriated the airport in 2004.) Only stated was, “The signing of the MOU signified an agreement between the government and Takenaka on the price at which the remaining work at NAIA would be completed.” Wha...?!?

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The girl was only seven years old. She had been missing for days, till an anonymous text message tipped off her parents where she would be found. Neighbors and policemen fished out her decomposing body from a creek near home. She had been raped, then drowned.

Witnesses pointed to two boys she was last seen with: a 17-year-old dropout and a Grade 5 pupil. Both suspects were known in their slum as “Rugby boys,” regularly high from sniffing solvents.

The two did not resist arrest. They readily admitted to and gave details of their heinous deed. They had kidnapped their little neighbor and taken her to a grassy portion of creek-side. There they took turns molesting her. When they couldn’t penetrate her bleeding genitals, they sodomized her. And because she wouldn’t stop sobbing, they drowned her in the murky waters.

The police charged — but did not detain — them. That’s because the law on the protection of minors forbids it. Not even for the wicked crimes of kidnapping, rape, and murder.

The two will be returned to their parents, in whose custody they may receive no reprimand. They had become substance abusers probably due to parental neglect; they are likely to continue being and undergoing the same.

Many minors get entangled in serious crimes. In recent months were reported gang rapes and homicides of friends by abandoned kids high on solvents. Others participated in massacres and ritual executions by Abu Sayyaf terrorists. Still others enlisted as communist or separatist child rebels.

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What is the Department of Public Works and Highways up to? In the 4th district of Pampanga it is excavating — supposedly for repair — a perfectly good 300-meter stretch of concrete highway.

Already dug up is one lane of that section of the Santo Domingo-San Luis-Bahay Pari Road, near Km 70 and Santa Monica Chapel. Yet it did not have major cracks, skews, or defects. It was paved only two years ago.

“Repair works” commenced a few days ago without warning road users about it. Even Mayor Venancio Macapagal of San Luis town reportedly was not informed. When he asked DPWH district personnel about it, all they said was, “It’s in the work program, that’s why.”

This is happening not only in Luzon. Columnist Ramon Tulfo reports similar “repairs” of roads that are in good condition in Misamis Oriental in northeastern Mindanao. Specifically he mentions the stretches of the Libertad Road leading to Initao town, the two-lane highway in Gitagum town, and the main road of El Salvador town. Again, all the “repairs” were being done because supposedly “programmed,” but road users were never notified.

The smooth concrete freeway linking Surigao and Marawi cities has been torn up for “repairs” too. Motorists complain that the usual seven-hour leisurely drive end to end, 240 km, now takes 16 hours. Traversing the myriad bumps and humps can wreck one’s under-chassis.

All this could be a waste of tax money. Precious government funds can be used elsewhere — to build waterworks, irrigation canals, bridges, flood control drainages, bridges, seaports and airports. Like, ironically only 250 meters from the good road now being repaired in Pampanga, a damaged national road needs repaving. That segment of highway in Santa Maria, Mexico town, was damaged by storm Ondoy and typhoon Pepeng three years ago. Yet it is nowhere in the DPWH “work program.” Listed instead is the other lane of the good road now being excavated.

All this comes at a time when the DPWH is boasting of approving and releasing funds for long-awaited infrastructure works. This was after a whole year, 2011, of denying that it contributed to unemployment by being so slow to implement roadworks.

Not only the DPWH central office but also the Department of Budget and Management should look into the “repairs.” The waste of money might not be out of careless field assessment of road conditions. It could be deliberate — the product of budget insertions by lawmakers, in cahoots with DPWH and DBM field personnel.

That’s what’s wrong with the pork barrel, particularly the “hard portion.” Public works (road paving and repairs) and supply purchases (medicines, fertilizers, books) are “commissionable.” Better to devote the pork barrel to the “soft portion” — as credits to be availed by constituents in government hospitals and such.

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