“Heads should roll, starting with the structural engineer of the billion-peso project”
WHY do we have collapsed bridges that now lead to nowhere? By the same token, why are many of our train stations lying idle and likewise lead to nowhere?
When President Marcos Jr. went to Isabela recently to see for himself the Cabagan-Santa Maria bridge that collapsed in February, he noted that this is the only suspension bridge in the whole world that was not reinforced with steel cables, thus making it prone to disaster.
His verdict: heads should roll, starting with the structural engineer of the billion-peso project. This hasn’t happened yet.
For Senate President Francis Escudero, the Department of Public Works and Highways should be held liable should it be proven that there were erroneous specifications that made the bridge substandard.
For his part, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel filed Senate Resolution 1319 directing the appropriate Senate panel to probe recurring incidents of collapsing bridges in the Philippines and seek accountability from the responsible public officials and contractors.
Research done by the senator’s office revealed that there have been other incidents of collapsed bridges in recent years: Magapi bridge in Balete, Batangas in Oct. 2024; Bantilan bridge connecting Batangas and Quezon, Carlos Romulo bridge in Bayambang, Pangasinan in Oct. 2022; Borja bridge in Bohol in June 2022; Loay-Clarin bridge in Bohol in April 2022; Bridge under construction in Marilog District in Davao City in Feb. 2022; and a steel bridge in Barangay San Isidro Majayjay, Laguna in Jan. 2022. That’s one too many failed bridge projects in the country.
It is lamentable that these collapsed bridges have resulted in deaths, injuries, and significant economic losses.
They also raise urgent concerns over deficiencies in design, use of substandard materials, lack of proper oversight, and quite possibly widespread corruption in other infrastructure projects.
Equally alarming is that billions of pesos in taxpayers’ money are spent and years wasted in constructing these bridges only for them to collapse later on.
We should not allow the reckless endangerment of lives and blatant squander of public funds to continue.
We must highlight in no uncertain terms the urgent need to review the compliance of national and local governments as well as contractors with engineering standards, design feasibility, maintenance protocols and infrastructure budget allocations.
While at this, we also want to highlight what new Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon has described as “excessive delay” in the construction of the United Grand Central Station along North EDSA, which is envisioned to link major railways Light Rail Transit Line 1, Metro Rail Transit Line 3 and MRT 7.
Dizon announced his department had terminated the contract with consortium BF Corp. and Foresight Development and Surveying Co. since the common station project had lain idle for over a year now. The DOTr and BFC-FDSC signed the deal in 2019.
According to Dizon, the DOTr’s legal team is already finalizing the termination of its contract with the consortium, adding that the consortium may even be slapped with penalties and liquidated damages for failure to complete the project.
After terminating the contract, Dizon said the DOTr is now seeking options under the Government Procurement Act or the Public-Private Partnership Code
Dizon has vowed to fast-track the implementation of priority projects under his watch. “The delay is unacceptable. This project should by now have been completed and people now benefiting from it.”
At the same time, Secretary Dizon, when asked about the problem of government’s failure to pay contractors on time, has acknowledged that late payments are really a problem, but that he would look into it and try to solve it to satisfy both sides.
At any rate, the DOTr should waste no time in getting the construction of the EDSA United Grand Station back on track as any further delay would not look good since the Marcos Jr. administration has already embarked on an aggressive infrastructure push to propel economic growth and development in the next three years.
The EDSA Common Station project is starting to gather dust and some steel portions are already rusting due to the stalled construction.
We hope the DOTr can do whatever is humanly possible to marshal both human and material resources and finish the vital project in a reasonable amount of time. Otherwise, it will end up as a monument to folly and a stark reminder of a train station to nowhere. (Email: ernhil@yahoo.com)