POTHOLES which emerged three months after the supposed completion of the rehabilitation of a segment in EDSA, the Senate hinted at investigating the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for what looks more like another waste of limited government funds.
In filing Senate Resolution 594, Senator Panfilo Lacson urged the upper chamber to seriously consider a “congressional inquiry” into the ongoing EDSA rehabilitation following days of intermittent rains caused by the southwest monsoon and recent tropical cyclones.
Under SB 594, Lacson cited the urgent need to look into the engineering standards applied in rehabilitation, repair and preservation of national roads by the DPWH.
“For nearly a week, persistent southwest monsoon rains have drenched parts of Luzon, including Metro Manila; damaging several main thoroughfares, including recently rehabilitated sections of EDSA,” reads part of the resolution.
According to Lacson, the severity of the damages would require another round of maintenance, which according to him would mean that the government will have to spend again for a segment of the project that was supposedly “completed.”
The lawmaker further said that the rapid deterioration of newly-repaired roads “exposes deep-seated flaws” in the planning, design, construction and management of high-cost public infrastructure projects.
The DPWH completed the first phase of the EDSA rehabilitation from Roxas Boulevard to Orense Street in Makati in April this year.
The contract for the second phase which spans from Orense Street to Monumento was awarded in May.
In a video of Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon of an inspection that was uploaded on Facebook, the DPWH chief was fuming mad and told the contractor — “We should be able to anticipate this, it’s clogged!”
The senator said Dizon’s remark reflected public anger after the government promised a complete rehabilitation of EDSA using what has been billed as “modern technologies.”
