Batangas First District Rep. Leandro Legarda Leviste urged the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to cooperate fully with an investigation into projects in his district.
The lawmaker disclosed that he has hired engineers and consultants to conduct a technical audit, at his personal expense, with the help of engineers from the affected local government units (LGUs).
Leviste earlier exposed a DPWH-Batangas district engineer’s P3.2-million bribe offer to prevent him from initiating an investigation into anomalous infrastructure projects in his district.
“We are trying our best to audit the projects of DPWH in the 1st District of Batangas, with the help of the affected LGUs. We’ve even hired engineers and consultants at my own expense. But it will be hard for us to solve the problems of the DPWH Batangas 1st District Engineering Office without the help of DPWH,” he said.
Along the Binambang River in Balayan, Batangas, where approximately ₱1 billion worth of flood control projects are located, the sheet piles were measured at only 3.9 to 5.5 meters, instead of the required 15 meters.
“The DPWH is now replacing these at the contractor’s expense with sheet piles measuring 15 meters, but I have yet to receive an explanation from the DPWH as to why the original sheet piles were shorter than they should have been,” the legislator said.
Along the Pansipit River in Lemery, Batangas, where there are also approximately ₱1 billion worth of flood control projects, sheet piles were measured at only 6.1 to 9.1 meters instead of the required 12 meters.
After Leviste’s audit, the contractor transported the sheet piles away from the site.
According to Leviste, the Lemery LGU informed him that it had not been notified about the DPWH project, which had not been issued a building permit.
DPWH has since proposed terminating the contract for this segment, which is being implemented by its Regional Office, and not making further payments to the contractor.
To recall, a recently widened segment of Diokno Highway in Calaca, Batangas, collapsed during Typhoon Crising.
