Issue of unimplemented flood-control projects raised

CEBU, Philippines - Members of the Cebu City Council claimed they were right in not approving the P500 million budget proposed by Mayor Michael Rama for flood control projects because until now the city engineers failed to implement all the projects out of the P100 million that they approved.

City Councilor Margarita “Margot” Osmeña, chairperson of the City Council’s Committee on Budget and Finance, said the documents she obtained from City Engineer Kenneth Carmelita Enriquez showed that there are still several flood control projects that are not implemented.

 Osmeña said some of these projects still remain under the “for survey” status even if it is already the last quarter of the year. Once the survey is completed, the Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) will prepare the Programs of Works and Estimates followed by the bidding of the project.

The City Council did not approve Rama’s proposed half-billion peso budget for flood control projects because during the budget deliberation, the city engineer admitted that they cannot finish the project within the year.

The city engineer explained that because the City Council only approved P100 million for flood control budget this year, they can only spend the money to dredge the city’s creeks.

But the city legislators, particularly Councilors Alvin Arcilla and Michael Ralota, considered the dredging of creeks that are undertaken by private contractors as a waste of funds because it did not totally solve the flooding in several parts of the city.

Ralota, whose house is situated a few meters away from the T. Padilla Creek, said that while the private contractor hired by the DEPW claimed that their project has been completed, their area still experience flooding during heavy rains.

“Moawas man gihapon ang sapa kon mag-uwan, (The creek still overflows whenever it rains.)” said Ralota, who sits as ex-officio member of the City Council as president of the Association of Barangay Councils.

Enriquez said she will invite representatives of some private contractors because of reports that they only dredged the areas along the road and not the entire stretch of the creek.

According to Enriquez, she assigned her engineers to supervise the ongoing projects to see to it that the specifications as provided for in the contract will be properly complied with by the contractors.

In a previous interview, however, Enriquez admitted that dredging of creeks alone cannot fully solve flooding, but the city should widen the narrow creeks to allow more volumes of water to pass through it.

The group of private engineers and architects who were asked by Mayor Michael Rama to assist the city in solving the flood problems of the city came up with a study that the city needs to spend at least P2.4 billion to solve the flood problems.  (FREEMAN)