DPWH urged: Ban project contractor

MANILA, Philippines – The Mandaluyong City government will ask the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to blacklist a contractor over delays in a flood project, an official said yesterday.

The delays have caused traffic gridlocks and water to accumulate at the site of the project, the Maysilo Circle. The stagnant water has caused an increase in mosquitos and a corresponding increase in dengue cases in the city, Mayor Benjamin Abalos Jr. said.

He asked DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson to have personnel working on the project ‘round the clock and order the contractor, L.R. Tiqui Builders, to install more motor pumps to prevent flooding near the city hall.

In his final State of the City Address yesterday, Abalos said while Mandaluyong is the beneficiary of the DPWH project, “this is not a license for them to savage us.”

The P609-million Mandaluyong Main Drainage Project Phase 3, one of the Aquino administration’s five big-ticket priority projects to solve flooding problems in Metro Manila, was supposed to be completed this May.

The DPWH website said it completed 54 percent of the project as of Dec. 31, 2015.

Promises

Jimmy Isidro, the city’s public information officer, said after eight letters and five meetings since 2012, the DPWH and L.R. Tiqui Builders made a “verbal promise” that the project will finally be completed by the end of August.

He said the city government and the DPWH agreed that the contractor would put up seven to eight motor pumps to divert floodwater from the Maysilo catch point to the nearby Pasig River.

The contractor, however, placed only two pumps and this has caused the area to remain flooded.

Abalos, in his letter to Singson, warned of the health hazards brought by stagnant floodwaters. He noted that dengue cases in Mandaluyong rose to 176 cases from January to September 2015, compared with 140 cases during the same period in 2014.

“The perils of the stagnant water becoming a breeding ground for life-threatening diseases have immediately contributed to the rise of dengue patients in our local hospitals, with the direct impact on our children,” he said.

Abalos added that the flooding has also forced several business establishments located around the city hall to shut down.

Singson has yet to communicate with the city government and a detailed plan of the project, including how much has been completed and when it will be finished.

“If the contractor is negligent, maybe the national government could blacklist them,” Abalos said.