Friday, March 07, 2008 80% of lamps, posts 'no longer working'
EVEN after the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) released its inventory of the streetlights and decorative lamps installed during the Asean Summit in 2007, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña reiterated his refusal to take part in the rehabilitation of these posts.
The inventory as of Feb. 20 showed Cebu City having 674 non-working decorative lamps and 10 missing ones, out of the 684 lamps installed along Juan Luna Ave., Salinas Drive, S. Osmeña Ave. and Cebu Transcentral Highway.
The mayor, however, rejected the idea of restoring these decorative lamps because “it would be easy to find a way to connect me to these transactions” and that his refusal remains “unless it’s the ombudsman who will say it’s okay.”
“We have to be very careful before we will be implicated as part of this corrupt transaction,” Osmeña said. He added that he would like to have the lamps examined “because these consume so much energy but don’t light up the streets.”
In Lapu-Lapu, as much as 80 percent of the 969 lampposts installed there no longer work.
Legal problems amid allegations of overpricing have held back the City from taking over the responsibility of maintaining these.
“Ilaha man na, wala man mi labot ana kay wala man na ma turn-over ngari namo (That’s the DPWH’s lookout. Those were never turned over to us),” said Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza.
Scandal
Vice Mayor Mario Amores said the City Council drafted a resolution asking for the turnover, but when they learned that the contractors had yet to transfer these to DPWH because of the agency’s failure to pay them in full, the council called off the idea.
Of 181 single-arm street lamps installed by DPWH in Lapu-Lapu City, at least 153 are no longer functioning. All of the 64 double-arm lamps, however, are still working.
The toll is heavier on the decorative lamps. Of 724, only 99 are still functioning.
The City Engineer’s Office, which takes charge of the street lighting program, kept its hands off from inspecting and securing the DPWH lampposts to avoid being accused of meddling.
Theft
But City Engineer Julieto Cuizon said that if DPWH cannot keep the lampposts working, they might as well remove these from the city.
The theft of electric wires is rampant in the city, he added.
“Biya-i nang imong wire sa balay and after a few minutes it would disappear, wala na kay suga. Grabe ang kinawatay dinhi (Leave some wire unattended at home and after a few minutes, it will disappear and you’ll be in the dark),” he said.
Cuizon, who is to retire next week, was preventively suspended for six months in 2007 by the Office of the Ombudsman Visayas, along with 18 other DPWH and local government officials investigated in connection with the allegedly overpriced lamps purchase.
Also suspended then were Mayor Radaza, nine officials of DPWH and former Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano.
Now, Radaza said he is worried about the traffic hazard posed if the lampposts aren’t fixed or if the city’s own electric posts go unrepaired.
“We have passed a resolution asking DPWH to correct the problem they brought to us, but they turned a deaf ear to our request. This street lights situation is a nightmare,” Amores said. (NRC/AIV)
