CHIEF presidential legal adviser Raul M. Gonzalez said the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has no authority to stop deliveries of sand and gravel to two Iloilo City projects.

He also said Iloilo Governor Niel D. Tupas should refrain from intervening in projects by limiting hauler truck deliveries of sand and gravel quarried in the municipalities of the province.

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Mediating over a disagreement between DPWH Regional Director Rolando Asis and truckers represented by Ireneo Grabato, Iloilo provincial government, and project contractors of the flood control project in Jaro district and coal fired power plant in La Paz district, Gonzalez reiterated the flood control project must be completed by December this year as announced by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Gonzalez said he had a recent talk with Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane regarding the matter and told the DPWH chief of regulated deliveries of aggregates that may cause the contractor to miss the December deadline of the flood control project.

Gonzalez said only allowed are the passage of hauler trucks carrying 13.5 cubic meters per delivery and 10-wheeler trucks carrying 27.5 cubic meters of sand and gravel.

“Every DPWH regional director knows this and I don’t need to remind them of the importance of these aggregates to the construction site,” Gonzalez said in a radio interview.

The chief legal adviser also said Asis should tell the Iloilo governor that a national law supersedes a provincial law and that Tupas has no basis limiting the volume of sand and gravel deliveries to two vital government projects.

Tupas, in response, said he is protecting quarry trucks with permits from the province in this particular situation.

Asis assured the P4 billion flood control project will be operational by end of December, but the completion of the whole project might be delayed due to the limited deliveries of aggregates.

Contractors are finishing a landfill project covering some 27 hectares of land at Barangay Ingore, La Paz district for the eventual construction of the first coal-fired power plant in the city. Project proponent Global Business Power Corp. assured there is no delay, adding the project is seen to bring in some P16 billion private investments to Iloilo City. (LCP)