Amid the heavy downpour the past few days, the walls securing the plush residences inside the gated Forbes Park in Makati City facing EDSA collapsed last Saturday night. Fortunately, no pedestrian passing by on the sidewalks or motorists cruising in those portions of EDSA was reported hurt or killed. But the collapsed walls slowed the traffic as debris occupied two lanes in that busy part of EDSA.
So even while government crews immediately jumped in to clear the obstruction, it created heavy traffic until the next day. Traffic enforcers were on site managing traffic as of 8:55 p.m., according to the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA).
To their credit, the MMDA deployed its quick emergency response teams located at EDSA northbound between Ayala and Buendia.
Due to bad weather, it took quite a long while for the MMDA response teams to completely clear the debris. Aided by steel-cutting tools and bulldozer, the MMDA response teams were able to remove dangerous materials that obstructed free flow of traffic. Most importantly, this was to ensure the safety of motorists and pedestrians, MMDA general manager Nicolas Torre III pointed out.
“The bottom portion of the wall is cement, but the upper parts were mounted with tubular (framings),” Torre noted.
Due to several days of the usual heavy rainfall, it was most probably the soil beneath these walls that loosened. And most likely than not, the concrete walls finally caved in due to sheer weight. Whatever caused this near-fatal collapse, it was a bad sign of poor, if not substandard, construction.
For a very public structure protecting private interests, this was yet another manmade accident waiting to happen.
Through all these times cruising through EDSA, these walls were mute witnesses to the daily movement of vehicles and people. Supposedly white-painted, perhaps not many passers-by ever pay attention to these walls – until it collapsed that night.
On the northbound side of EDSA, these high walls run along the posh villages of Dasmariñas and Forbes. And on the other side of EDSA going south, similar high walls protect the gated rows of rich residents in Bel-Air, Urdaneta and San Lorenzo villages.
According to Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) “acting” Secretary Vivencio “Vince” Dizon, the DPWH is coordinating with the Makati city government and the MMDA before deciding whether to demolish the severely damaged structure. For the time being, he asked the MMDA to put a barrier to caution the people to avoid using the EDSA sidewalk along the affected areas.
People finally took notice of the current state of these walls after this incident. Taking a closer look at these structures, large cracks – if not outright holes – dot the stretch of walls on both sides of EDSA. Except those in Bel-Air that seemed to be recently re-painted all white, people should be properly warned. Especially for pedestrians using the sidewalk, a notice must be posted: Stay alert. Watch out vs falling walls.
And to think DPWH’s Dizon has talked about his brainchild project of widening the sidewalks of EDSA.
Which brings to mind why widen the sidewalk when the priority should be to widen, not to narrow, the road, especially in this traffic-jam prone EDSA?
From media reports, the “acting” DPWH secretary was hopping mad and fulminating again. Dizon reportedly rushed to the site near EDSA Ayala and joined Torre in overseeing the emergency operations to restore normal traffic flow along the affected lane. Inspecting ground zero, an irate Dizon discovered the collapsed huge pieces of wall were not reinforced with concrete and steel bars.
Initial inspection showed the collapsed portions were made of tubular framing and drywall instead of cement. “This is just drywall. Whoever did this, they are making it seem like it’s cement. But what happened is there’s soil and if it continuously rains, it will be filled with water and it will collapse,” Dizon was quoted as saying.
“I was even able to break a piece of it with my bare hands,”” Dizon huffed in dismay.
“It is fortunate that no one was walking here, because if someone had been under this when it collapsed, they surely would have been killed,” Dizon ranted. He vowed to investigate how the collapsed walls were built. As of yesterday, the DPWH has yet to verify if the walls were public or private structures.
“We have to investigate where this wall came from and who built it, whether it was the government, the homeowner or Forbes Park. We will also summon the local building official because this kind of construction cannot be allowed,” Dizon bristled.
“We have to find out first who made these (walls) before we can exact accountability. What happened was not a joke,” a stern-faced Dizon added.
After all, corruption is not a monopoly of government. In fact, many of those implicated in the multimillion-peso reported “ghost” flood control projects of the government were greedy private contractors. Dizon’s anger obviously stems from such realities he has to deal with when he moved over last year to a new Cabinet post to replace former DPWH secretary Manuel Bonoan.
Along with former Bulacan district engineers, Bonoan is currently under police hospital detention while undergoing trial at the Sandiganbayan for graft and plunder charges on the alleged “ghost” flood control projects funded in the congressional insertions of the DPWH budgets in the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
This incident of collapsed walls ushered in the transmittal to the 20th Congress of the proposed P7.2-trillion national budget for next year. In a message to lawmakers, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. cited the proposed 2027 GAA bill seeks to strengthen the government’s capacity to invest in strategic infrastructure, human capital, food and energy security and social protection, while reinforcing transparency, accountability and the efficient use of public resources.
And to put it bluntly, to shield it from the hands of greed and corruption.