Senators pressed the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to explain their diggings on “good roads” then repair them later, but bad roads which need to be fixed were left unattended.
The directive was issued during the Senate hearing of the proposed P821.107-billion budget of the DPWH for 2024.
Senator Ronald Dela Rosa and Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III confronted DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan on massive diggings including roads that needed no fixing.
Dela Rosa asked Bonoan how can they avoid the public cursing them for destroying roads which they see as still good and sturdy.
“But the DPWH do not fix damaged roads. We’ve been questioning that. I have also been asking why they first repair good roads which they destroyed, but they’re not attending to damaged roads needing repair,” said Dela Rosa.
“I know this is just a small thing, but it is irritating on the part of the public to see roads being damaged and public funds being wasted,” he said.
Responding to the query, Bonoan argued it was a “very technical issue,” adding it was actually preventive maintenance and reconstruction.
He asserted that there comes a point when the road starts to deteriorate and “it would be more economical to undertake preventive maintenance.”
“Even if you see that a road is still good, there were instances when the pavement actually started to deteriorate,” said.
“So it will be more economical to repave it at that point in time so that we can save the base and subbase. We will no longer touch the base and subbase, it’s just the pavement that we’re going to replace,” Bonoan noted.
For roads that had deteriorated and the base and subbase had fallen, Bonoan said that’s going to be reconstructed. He said this will undergo bigger rehabilitation and reconstruction.
“We have to prevent the further deterioration of the subbase and base before anything else so we are just going to replace the running. Worst roads were being reconstructed,” Bonoan said.
Dela Rosa accepted Bonoan’s explanations, but Pimentel wasn’t satisfied, saying that the answer was so technical.
Pimentel said he saw a good road in Marikina being broken by DPWH.
“So it’s difficult to believe. It goes against the inputs of our senses. Your eyes can see the roads are still good and then they will tell you they’re rotten under. And then you will see roads which are actually rotten, but the DPWH has been failing to act on them,” Pimentel said.
“This shows the different levels of vigilance among your people Secretary?” Pimentel told Bonoan and inquired from him the reasons for this act.
He asked Bonoan if they do not have a circular to tell everybody the flow chart so the “practice of reality does not go against the theory that you are giving us.”
Bonoan said during the time of former DPWH Secretary-now Sen. Mark Villar, they have a computer system that monitors the conditions of the roads and bridges all over the country. “
“And this is the basis for the program that we are implementing right now. We now have a good inventory of ah the conditions of the roads and the bridges as well,” Bonoan added.
He said this is the basis for the program that they are currently implementing right now.
“We now have a good inventory of the conditions of the roads and the bridges as well. We have a pavement management system which tells us what is now the condition of the road and bridges and what kind of intervention that they have to take.
“It’s a little more systematic this time,” Bonoan said.
Senate Finance committee chairperson Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara who presided over the budget hearing said “I think we’ve reached the point also due to the success of the Department and the Build3 program which shouldered 99 percnt of their expenses on roads and other infrastructures.”
He recalled defending the DPWH budget during the time of Villar when almost all the roads were paved.
