This write-up is about the most important bridge in Eastern Visayas. It is also about a bridge that is a significant link between Luzon and Mindanao. I can even say it a bridge most Filipinos know because it is the longest bridge in the Pan-Philippine Highway that connects Luzon to Mindanao and it has existed for fifty years.
Due to the fact that this bride is the main route for bringing goods and passengers by road from Luzon to Mindanao, it is one that affects a large part of this country.
Now the San Juanico bridge is practically closed, open only to light traffic and only one lane can be used at a time. Consequently, the waiting time for a vehicle and its passengers and cargoes to cross, I was told by a relative who came from Eastern Samar, is at least two hours. The line of vehicles goes several kilometers long.
This has never happened. The bridge has been closed more than twenty years ago for repairs when a shipping vessel hit a supporting structure and damaged the bridge.
But I remember that the long queues of cars and buses was not experienced.
This time everybody was surprised, even the Department of Public Works and Highways (DWPH) which had to scramble for alternatives the public can take.
There are rumors swirling that the DPWH Regional Office reported the need to repair the bridge in 2022 but their proposal for funding the request was not approved by their Central Office. But other less critical infrastructures were funded.
Another unconfirmed report is that for one thousand and five hundred pesos a truck, these vehicles can cross the bridge even if they exceed the maximum allowable limit. And these trucks and heavy equipment caused the damage to the structure of the bridge.
Even with the limited data available, a few observations and criticisms are still in order.
First, the DPWH did not properly inform other agencies and local government units about the serious problem of a bridge about to fall apart, to put it in the extreme.
The region a few months ago a major bridge in Biliran Province was closed. In another part of the country, a key span of a multi-billion-peso bridge in the Cagayan Valley Region collapsed.
So the administration has a bridge problem that it is unable to fix.
Second, why was the order to virtually close the bridge given suddenly catching everyone by surprise. This is strange because the DPWH has a unit specifically stationed below the bridge to monitor the state of the bridge. The desire to inspect the bridge as often as it can is there, but the execution was faulty maybe even negligent.
Third, why was there no plan on alternate routes that will be capable of quick execution? What happened was confusion as to how to enforce a limited use of the bridge and was unable to guide people to alternate routes like using ports and roll-on roll-off sea vessels, and so forth.
This grim situation reminds me of the maxim that “if you do not plan then you plan to fail”. Clearly the DPWH did not have any plan in place and ready for execution.
The Regional Project Monitoring Committee of the Regional Development Council never talked about this repair because it was not reported by DPWH.
It will turn out to be the single biggest incident of the year which will have significant negative effects on the economy particularly on inflation as transport costs rise and the supply of goods decline.
There are billions of pesos worth of government infrastructure projects in Leyte and Samar, but this one really escaped the attention of a lot of people responsible for making sure nothing of this sort of calamity occurs.
Will heads turn here because of poor monitoring and failure to put in place a contingency or emergency transport plan in case a disaster like this happens?
Let us see how this turns out.
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