‘Underdesigned’

In countries such as Japan and South Korea, the collapse of a portion of a brand-new bridge would have led to at least one top official taking the blame, apologizing to the public and then resigning, even before a formal investigation gets underway.

In our country, we will see a lot of hand-wringing, promises from top officials that heads will roll, perhaps a congressional investigation. And then, after all the sound and fury... nothing.

It will be another case of forgive and forget. Especially since the collapse of a section of the Cabagan-Sta. Maria bridge in Isabela did not leave anyone dead.

Six people were reportedly injured, but maybe they can use some ayuda so the noise can subside ASAP – not forthwith, with its confounding interpretations, but as quickly as you can say AICS or AKAP.

There’s a proposal for the Department of Public Works and Highways to conduct the probe. But it goes without saying that the DPWH should be trying to find out why a bridge, which it built at a cost of P1,225,537,087.92 in public funds, and retrofitted twice for a total of another P389 million, gave way under the weight of one truck transporting boulders.

That dump truck didn’t look like one of those monster haulers used to transport heavy equipment and giant prefab trusses for highway construction. It’s just a truck whose driver probably didn’t know who in his company is supposed to ensure compliance with the gross weight advisory that the DPWH swears is posted at the approaches to the bridge.

The truck driver was hauled to the police station for questioning. A driver’s task is to transport passengers and cargo from Point A to Point B. Maybe his bosses, or whoever supervised the loading of the boulders onto the truck, will also be questioned.

Like the truck driver, I’m no structural engineer, but we probably think alike. Upon seeing the bridge nearly a kilometer long that’s touted as a landmark of the province, our reaction would be: It looks so nifty! So solid!

A decade in the making, the bridge has to be sturdy. If the truck can handle the weight of the boulders, why not the concrete bridge?

You know where these observations are headed. Sino ba ang kumita dito? Who made a profit in this deal?

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The DPWH regional director with jurisdiction over the bridge, Mathias Malenab, took over the post in an acting capacity only late last year, so he was likely not involved in the decision-making and implementation of the project and the two retrofitting works on the bridge. He need not be in denial about the possible culpability of the DPWH in the accident.

Hours after the incident, Malenab told “Stoycon” on One News that the bridge gave way under the weight of the dump truck and its cargo of boulders, with the gross weight reaching 102 tons.

Perhaps Malenab, although an engineer, is in no position to explain why the bridge, built so flooding on the plain below won’t disrupt vehicular traffic, was not designed in the first place to handle heavier weights. Maybe not the monster haulers, but at least a dump truck loaded with boulders.

How can a bridge costing a total of about P1.6 billion including retrofitting be unable to bear the weight of 102 tons?

The DPWH says construction of the Cabagan-Santa Maria bridge started in November 2014 during the presidency of Noynoy Aquino. Malenab said two design consultants were hired by the DPWH, which awarded the contract to R.D. Interior, Jr. Construction.

According to news reports, R.D. Interior, a single proprietorship with office address in Tuguegarao, also bagged two retrofitting contracts for the bridge: one in May 2023 worth P274 million to be carried out within 330 days, and a second one in May 2024 worth P115 million, for completion in 180 days.

Yesterday, President Marcos blamed the collapse of the Isabela bridge on “poor design” and penny-pinching in lowering the cost. If he’s blaming a design flaw, it would go back to Noynoy Aquino’s administration.

Malacañang officials vowed to hold people accountable, and noted that about 90 percent of the work was done during the Duterte administration.

With the feud between the Marcoses and Dutertes getting worse, perhaps we might actually see proper accountability – and punishment – in this incident.

Perhaps we might even see a contractor held accountable for delivering a substandard product.

Who knows, we might see confirmation of what anti-corruption advocates have been saying – that these days, politicians not only earmark projects for implementation in their turfs, but also pick the contractor and supply the materials from their family businesses.

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Malacañang said on Wednesday that a third party may be tapped to determine if the bridge was “underdesigned.”

That would accurately describe so many other public infrastructure in our land of thieves.

Because of the cost of corruption, contractors are forced to resort to cost-cutting. The result? Substandard roads that disintegrate in the first heavy downpour, flood control projects that don’t do the job and are probably even non-existent, and yes, new bridges that fall down.

So much of public infrastructure is now being turned over to the private sector, for construction or maintenance. Such infrastructure is supposed to be provided by the government to the public for free, especially considering that the DPWH now gets the lion’s share of the annual national budget instead of education.

Private enterprise does not have the deep resources of government and must turn a profit for sustained survival. Privately maintained roads require tolls, which add to logistics costs and are passed on to consumers, contributing to inflation.

As the meme of the week put it, the Isabela bridge was “made of steal.”

And the latest: it was underdesigned because there was an under-the-table deal.

We would be laughing if it didn’t involve P1.6 billion of people’s money – our money.

That bridge is where our taxes go.