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Friday, March 28, 2003
Glo sees, angered by, road disrepair
By Karen M. Flores
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
PRESIDENT Arroyo blew her top yesterday afternoon when she found out that work on the dusty Naga-Uling road had not started, and no Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) official could explain to her why there was nothing going on in the road link.
“This is why I scheduled this trip. I thought construction had started here. Somebody has to answer and tell me why it has not started,” she told some employees of DPWH 7.
Arroyo asked for DPWH Undersecretary Salvador Pleyto and Director Juanito Abergas, both of whom were not in Naga town, which she visited on her way to a goat dispersal farm, and where she spent some time to talk with local officials.
She was even more upset when she learned during a phone call to the Official Development Assistance (ODA) office in Manila that the report reaching there was that the road was already being graded and that the contractor had already been partly paid in advance.
Only minutes before, a Japanese consultant to the project to be funded by a loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) told her that there is yet no contractor, as the bid documents are still being prepared and the bidding has been scheduled for September yet.
“No, no, no. It cannot be like that. It must already be bid out. We have a right to expect a quick response to this because we are paying interest here,” Arroyo said.
During her cellular phone call to Manila to the ODA official, she kept repeating, “I’m here, in the road. There’s nothing here.”
The P555-million loan from JBIC is supposed to rehabilitate 34.81 kilometers of the Naga-Uling road and six bridges there.
‘Use the money’
Arroyo instructed the Japanese consultant to make sure that they comply with an administrative order she earlier issued that an implementing agency only has two and a half months to conduct a bidding from the time funding is made available for a project.
She was supposed to look at the progress of the rehabilitation of the Naga-Uling road yesterday. The visit to the goat dispersal farm was meant as a side trip.
The President also questioned Naga Mayor Ferdinand Chiong why he decided to deposit in the bank the P1 million she released as loan to the southern town and to other local government units (LGUs) in Cebu to develop small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
“Do not put that P1 million in the bank. Meeting-meeting na naman? Before I give you anything else, what I give you, it has to be used. I want that money in an enterprise, not in a bank,” she noted.
“That’s my priority. I want the money to generate jobs. When you do that, then I can consider giving you something else. But only when my priority is complied with,” Arroyo further said.
During her visit to the farm, she also promised to help Rep. Jose Gullas (Cebu, 1st district) in his bid to regionalize the release of salaries to teaching and non-teaching personnel of public elementary schools.
She asked Gullas to write her a letter on the benefits of releasing salaries straight from the Department of Budget and Management to regional offices of the Department of Education (DepEd).
Arroyo said she will refer this to the DepEd secretary for the possible drafting of an administrative order while the bill Gullas filed is still pending.
(March 28, 2003 issue)
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