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Thursday, February 02, 2006
Controversial bridge project due for completion in May
THE controversial Baobo Bridge in Laak, Compostela Valley is due for completion this year, assured the Provincial Engineering Office.
It also denied allegations of Provincial Board Member Arthur "Chongkee" Uy that the project is anomalous.
In an interview Wednesday, Provincial Engineering Office administrative officer Engineer Manolo Serafin Cayme said the project was temporarily halted upon their recommendation due to bad weather condition and inaccessible road.
For this reason, he said, Governor Jose Caballero immediately ordered the release of P1.1 million for the repair of the Aguinaldo-Kidawa road where Baobo Bridge is supposed to be constructed.
Cayme said once the municipal road is repaired they would immediately start the construction of the Baobo bridge.
He estimated the bridge to be completed in May, this year.
The project is only eight percent complete based on the report that the same office submitted to the Department of Interior and Local Government, who is the one overseeing the project.
On the alleged anomaly raised by Uy, Cayme said there is no truth to such.
He said the project was first started in 2003 but it was only in the last quarter of 2004 that they were able to get enough funding to start the project.
Cayme said the Provincial Government initially released P500,000 in 2003 just to start the project.
In October 2004, another P3.9 million was released, which was used to purchase the construction materials and other expenses.
Cayme said they were not able to use all of the P3.9 million in 2004 and they had a remaining balance of about P1.3 million, which was re-appropriated for the 2005 budget.
The 2005 budget of the province was approved only in May 2005, which added the factor of the delay in the completion of the project.
Aside from the bad weather condition and inaccessible road, the province is also using only one crane for all of the five Tulay ng Pangulo projects in Compostela Valley.
Two of the five bridges were already inaugurated late last year while the remaining three would be finished this year, Cayme said.
He said all of the materials and the remaining budget for the project are accounted for and are not missing as suspected by Uy.
Cayme welcomed the alleged investigation by the Ombudsman-Mindanao on the project, saying they have nothing to hide and are only doing their job to complete the project that would benefit hundreds of farmer-residents in the far-flung area of Baobo.
Uy, on the other hand, maintained that the main reason for the investigation is to know the truth.
He said if there is indeed no anomaly in the project, then the people involved have nothing to worry about.
(February 2, 2006 issue)
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