EDITORIAL – Can anyone clean up the DPWH?

As of late yesterday afternoon Bayani Fernando was reportedly still considering whether he should accept the post of secretary of public works and highways. This was hours after Malacañang announced that Fernando would replace Public Works Secretary Simeon Datumanong, who is moving to the Department of Justice. Fernando, who was a city mayor before becoming chairman of the Metro Manila Development Authority, said that while he may have had some success in sweeping clean the streets of Metro Manila, he was not sure if he could clean up the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Datumanong headed the DPWH for two years. During that period the department continued programs on infrastructure development. He also initiated an investigation that led to the discovery of a multimillion-peso anomaly involving the repair of DPWH vehicles. As a result, several DPWH officials have been charged with graft and suspended.

One look at the infrastructure in this country, however, will tell you that cleaning up the DPWH still has a long way to go. The flood control program of the DPWH was such a joke that the transfer of the task to the MMDA last year was greeted with some relief by the public. The DPWH can’t even install a "smart" traffic light system that works. Substandard roads are everywhere, constructed by companies whose chief qualification for winning public works contracts is having the right connections in the DPWH. The roads stick out like sore thumbs when compared with the smoothly paved roads built quickly by foreigners in some parts of the Philippines. In Metro Manila, where pavements disintegrate in the rain and there are endless road diggings, roads have been repaired so hapha-zardly a smooth ride is impossible.

Some contractors have reportedly complained that to win a contract in the DPWH, they have to grease the palms of everyone from clerks to ranking officials. Graft adds a huge amount to the cost of public works projects. No wonder the department is consistently rated in surveys as one of the most corrupt government agencies. Can Bayani Fernando make a difference in 18 months? At the MMDA he collided with some mayors of Metro Manila. At the DPWH he will be up against a seemingly well-entrenched network to which commissions and kickbacks have become a way of life.