Built not to last

Finally, a respite from traffic-causing road reblocking – tearing up sections of a damaged concrete pavement, repairing the base layer, and then pouring a fresh concrete surface layer.

Way back in January 2009, the World Bank had debarred seven contractors, three of them Philippine firms and four Chinese, plus one person from bidding for WB-funded road projects.

This was after the multilateral lender established collusive bid-rigging for contracts under phase one of the Philippine National Roads Improvement Program, which was partly funded with a $150-million loan from the World Bank.

The debarments were for periods ranging from four to eight years, but one Philippine firm, Manila-based E.C. de Luna Construction Corp. and its owner Eduardo C. de Luna were permanently debarred. Today the company is still operating in the country, and is still building roads.

For a long time, the World Bank had considered corruption a political problem. It began directly linking corruption to underdevelopment – and a major hindrance to its work – only in the late 1990s, beginning with a speech in 1996 by then WB president James Wolfensohn who described corruption as a “cancer.”

Among the WB’s early findings in its studies was that road projects were favorite sources of corruption in the developing world. The quality of the road network, the Bank noted, is often an indicator of the level of corruption in a country.

We can see this in our looted Philippines. For as long as I can remember, I have wondered why our roads are a patchwork quilt of disjointed construction and repair work.

It’s not unusual to see patches of concrete pavement laid side-by-side with asphalt along a five-kilometer road stretch. Potholes and cracks on concrete are also repaired with asphalt, and vice versa.

In several areas, roads are built without curbs. An honest retired city civil engineer told me that this makes the pavement less durable. Asphalt, he said, is also laid at the wrong temperature and with insufficient thickness for the expected vehicular volume.

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“Built to last” is a favorite product marketing pitch. In the case of Philippine roads, I’ve long suspected that they are designed or repaired deliberately to be short-lived, so that they can melt in the rain and be repaired over and over again. For every repair project, a kickback.

Worse, even when roads still look perfectly fine, they are torn up and repaired, sometimes badly, probably so they will need further touch-ups. I don’t know if it’s just my malicious imagination, but the unnecessary reblockings seem to increase before school opening. Maybe the thieves need tuition for their kids studying in expensive schools overseas.

The road projects also seem to peak during our long Christmas season. Because of public anger over the holiday traffic gridlocks, road diggings were curbed in recent years: no repairs during the peak of the season. But even then, there were always exemptions: big-ticket flagship projects, emergency repairs, and drainage or sidewalk improvements. Of course, many of the projects were classified under the exempted categories, ensuring that the season remained joyful for the thieves.

Apart from the endless patchwork repairs, each project typically displays a billboard with the name and image of the lawmaker taking credit for it. In the flood control scandal, such epal billboards can identify the lawmakers who inserted the projects for funding in the national budget. But the practice appears to have been stopped for major infrastructure projects in Metro Manila, although it continues in many other parts of the country.

Across the country, many roads – including those classified as farm-to-market – have been constructed merely to benefit the resorts, farms, businesses and other properties of the congressional endorsers.

A common practice is for a lawmaker’s family to buy up undeveloped land, and then endorse for public funding and approval road projects that pass through the property. Naturally, the value of the property shoots up once the road is opened.

According to anti-corruption crusaders, it has becoming increasingly common for lawmakers or their families to own not only the companies that bag the contracts for such projects but also those that supply the requirements.

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Mayors have lamented that they are not consulted in projects implemented in their jurisdictions by the national government. They say that often, the projects are not in sync with development plans of the local government units. It’s typical in our government: the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

Lawmakers get to earmark their pet projects for funding under the National Expenditure Program. Any reform arising from the flood control scandal should draw a clearer line between the legislative power of the purse and executive power.

The Supreme Court had prohibited the allocation of lump sums to lawmakers and allowing them to earmark pet projects for funding with those allocations after the enactment of the national budget.

But the magicians in Congress quickly devised ways of going around the SC prohibition, through unprogrammed appropriations as well as confidential and intelligence funds.

Despite the uproar over the congressional budget insertions, the House of Representatives passed last Monday the 2026 budget bill with P243.2 billion in unprogrammed appropriations intact. Can they ever wean themselves from their pork-laden diet? Even Malacañang can’t live without its own pork.

Road reblocking, which gives the public endless grief, is among the favorite pork barrel projects, providing opportunities for kickbacks.

Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon has indefinitely suspended all reblocking activities, pending a review of whether the projects are necessary.

The review should have been done ages ago, but it’s better late than never. And there must be punishment for the thieves.