Sec. Vince Dizon announced last week that he will be submitting to the Ombudsman several complaints a week against corrupt government officials. Those involved are in panic mode. In social media interviews, several DPWH officials have already revealed their defenses.
Let us take for example Regional Director Gerald Pacanan of Region IV-B who met Provincial Governor Humerlito Dolor in a flood control project site in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro. It was covered by ABS-CBN. Governor Dolor was virtually accusing him of not doing his job because of the serious deficiencies of the flood control projects of DPWH in his province.
Among the points I remember the DPWH official saying is: the DPWH standards of construction have changed over the last few years. Now they are better reinforced so the old structures do not have adequate reinforcing bars; the project is a system so until it is completed it is prone to leaks and failures, thus more flooding until it is completed. He also said that the cost of construction is not one million pesos per lineal meter, but only between 700,000 and 800,000 pesos.
All those arguments are faulty. It will be put to shreds during the hearings. The physical evidence of failure is huge, like the hundred meters of unfinished flood control structures reported completed but is in reality unfinished.
This province gained national prominence because here Sec. Dizon announced last week that the next batch of complaints to be filed will be about DPWH projects in Oriental Mindoro. Sec. Dizon did not announce who will be charged but there is no doubt it will include the Regional Director who had a lot of explaining to do because he approved all these projects worth billions of pesos only this year. These were the projects visited by Sec. Dizon a few days ago which he saw either to be missing or poorly constructed.
Of course all those charged will say they are innocent. They will put up all the legal defenses in the book.
The answers of former District Engineer Henry Alcantara of Bulacan are also instructive because these are the defenses that will be put up in these two trials, one involving a former D.E. and the other a former Regional Director.
Based on the interviews I cited, I can already identify some of the defenses.
The designs are changed from time to time, so it is alleged. The designs of earlier years could easily be destroyed. But it can be argued that changing design used in different phases of the same projects smacks of severe incompetence. It was not the design that was lacking because DPWH had competent planners, but that the implementation was substandard.
The reason for the incompetent handling of implementation is obvious. There was corruption and government funds were going into several pockets other than the proper execution of the projects.
Another common defense is: that the official does not have the time to review project accomplishments. He relies on the signature of his staff to determine whether the accomplishments cited are correct and whether the papers pertain to an existing project or to none at all, thus to a ghost project.
He explains he performed a ministerial act and that he relied only on the certifications signed by his subordinates. As Engr. Alcantara explains, he is overseeing more than a thousand projects. He cannot supervise all of them.
Of course these reasons are shallow. When the designs are laid out, the accomplishments are measured, and the quality of materials are analyzed, the extent of corruption will be clear.
The enormity of it all will give away the defense. The size of the corruption will be its own downfall.
#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #OpinYonNews #Column #IAmBack