I ‘m glad to read the editorial, The highways enigma, in last week’s issue of this newspaper. The first line said, “Someone finally had the guts to call it, as he saw it.”
The piece talked about the practice of the Department of Public Works & Highways to rip up perfectly-good and passable roads, only to repair them again, wasting so much government funds in the process.
The piece also quoted the good City Councilor Jose “Petit” Baldado as saying the practice is “the highest form of stupidity.”
Indeed, among government offices, there is no higher form of stupidity than this by the DPWH.
Haven’t they heard the idiom “Don’t fix what is not broken”?
Then again, the DPWH has been doing this stupid practice since whenever it was, so we shouldn’t be surprised by this, right?
Wrong! People will always be surprised by it because it unnecessarily disrupts the flow of traffic, increases the consumption of fuel, delays public commute, wastes taxpayers’ money, and creates road hazards.
In last year’s Senate budget hearing, the DPWH was asked by Senators about this stupid practice. Here is Public Works Sec.Manuel Bonoan’s answer: “…maganda-ganda pa ang tingin ninyo but actually, the pavement starts to deteriorate. So it will be more economical actually to repave it at that point in time so that we can save actually yung base and subbase. Hindi na natin muna gagalawin yung base and subbase. It’s just the pavement that we’re going to replace.”
Now that sounds like a technical explanation that an engineer like Bonoan can easily understand, and not the general public.
Let us say that his answer also applies to us locally—the stupid acts of the DPWH in Negros Oriental. I would be curious to know about the equipment they use to inspect the roads that allows them to “see” beneath the surface pavement, and into the “base and subbase,” to make the determination that it is the right time to “destroy” and “repair” the roads!
I certainly have not seen any of them using any kind of “strange” equipment anywhere in accomplishing this! Do they even have one? Or are they going to just fool us simply with their professional qualifications?
How often should they inspect roads and bridges? I would say that inspection should be a daily occurrence (that’s why they have vehicles and fuel for them). It should be part of their daily “paid” routine. Then certification should probably occur every two years or so.
How often do we see DPWH personnel at bridges and national roads doing their inspection rounds? Never mind the bi-annual certification because the longer the frequency, the lesser our chances of seeing any of them anywhere.
But we should see them quite often on their daily inspections. They would be very visible because of the color and markings on their vehicles. But we don’t! And therein lies the rub!
Had the Priority Development Assistance Fund, what we knew as Pork Barrel Fund, not been abolished, that would have been the most likely cause of this stupid DPWH practice.
It would have served to spend leftover money so that the following year’s allocation would not be reduced.
They did not want it known that the PDAF was too much — even after they stole from it (they were “growing” their pork barrel funds). After all, the construction of some roads were funded by pork barrel money from congressmen and senators.
The easiest way to spend it all is by destroying then “rebuilding” perfectly-good roads.
Now that there is no more PDAF, this stupid DPWH practice becomes a phenomenon in the government.
I just hope that journalists will chase DPWH personnel for the answers, and not leave a single stone unturned. Have DPWH explain the process they use to determine if a section of road needs to be replaced.
Ask to see the equipment they use because they cannot make such determination by looking at the surface of a good road.
Ask DPWH what their routine preventive inspection cycle is, and how often certification of roads and bridges are conducted. THEY MUST NOT BE LEFT TO JUST ANSWER ONE OR TWO QUESTIONS. It would be “too easy” for them!
Here’s some food for thought: the DPWH says that their policy is to repair roads in order of priority.
If that were so, how come there are sections of roads that are visibly in need of repair and yet do not get repaired, and haven’t been repaired in decades? Some have potholes large enough to accommodate Juan’s carabao!
Whoever does a news story on this next time must be inquisitive enough to appear like an as—–! Have DPWH hate you! It would only mean that you did a good and thorough job!
If we show overly- polite niceties toward the DPWH, the way it is now will continue, and they will keep giving the public the same B.S., or they won’t even bother explaining at all, like now!
It seems to me their policies are at best vague or are not followed at all.
Otherwise, where do they get the wisdom that to repair, first they have to destroy?!
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