All 12 segments of the collapsed Cabagan-Santa Maria bridge in Isabela exhibited defects, according to Senator Alan Peter Cayetano during Wednesday’s Senate Blue Ribbon Subcommittee hearing,
This assertion was based on Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) reports spanning 2018 to 2020, which detailed issues such as cracks, snapped bolts, and deformed steel cross sections.
“Every single span had problems. These are based on submitted reports, and I thank the DPWH, though these were ignored by higher-ups,” Cayetano stated. “Your field engineers identified issues in each span, prompting the DPWH to request an independent structural engineer. A billion-peso bridge has collapsed, and we seem to lack outrage.”
While the DPWH initially reported defects in only Spans 1, 2, 3, 7, and 8 during construction, Cayetano highlighted that urban engineers recorded 935 failures during their evaluation.
“The bridge’s collapse was not unexpected, given the consistent problems from 2018 to the present and the sheer number of failures,” he emphasized.
Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Manuel Bonoan clarified that these failures were addressed through retrofitting, and a private consulting firm was engaged to assess the bridge’s condition.
He also noted that the bridge was still under the contractor’s custody and had not been officially turned over to the DPWH at the time of the collapse.
A special committee, formed on March 18, is conducting a forensic investigation and is expected to submit its report to the DPWH by April 25.
Bonoan explained that the contractor, R.D. Interior Jr. Construction, is awaiting the forensic investigation’s completion before commencing reconstruction.
“The reconstruction of the collapsed Span 3 remains the contractor’s responsibility, and they are willing to rebuild the bridge whenever the Department provides the go-ahead,” Bonoan stated. He estimated that Span 3’s reconstruction could be completed in less than a year but stressed the necessity of examining other bridge sections as well.