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Wednesday, April 16, 2003
Gulle: What's cooking at the Bulaong Terminal?
By Inocentes A. Gulle
People are curious about the unfinished Bulaong Terminal Building. The last thing we heard is that some redesigning is being done by the City Engineering Office. We understand Mr. Manny Yapphuckon has yet to study the new design before proceeding with the construction, if he decides not to quit, under the circumstances. That was about three months ago and there seems to be nothing doing at the site.
If I understand correctly, redesigning calls for a change or modification of the original design. It would therefore require alteration of the original construction, defective as it is. In such a case some portions of the original structure must be demolished and replaced with new construction, in accordance with the altered design.
But someone from the City Engineering Office, who prefers not to be identified, said that only a " minor correction" of the defective portions would be done. Since the subject of exception of the City Planning Office's Project Monitoring Unit was the "weak" sagging or sinking foundations, that should constitute a major correction since the whole structure is resting on them.
In any case, the public is gravely prejudiced since it has to contend with the elements until that building is completed, when taking a bus. Had there been no bloopers all around that terminal building would have been completed already and passengers wouldn't have to suffer the blistering El Niņo sun as they are now, while waiting for their ride.
By bloopers I mean series of ill-advised and inappropriate actions that ultimately resulted in this untenable situation. I think they all started with the faulty design made by the City Engineers, which of course resulted in a defective construction that the City Planning Office's project monitoring unit found and submitted for rectification.
It turned bad when the mayor, by a stroke of wisdom, refuted and chided the PMU with some oblique commentary on the competence of the unit. It's not clear whether it was the Mayor who said that he ought to know better (than the PMU) he being and engineer, or something to that effect, which in turn elicited some colorful comments from the City Planning Chief Mr. Telesforo Zosa.
Things really got worse when he took umbrage at the comments of Mr. Zosa, and subsequently subjected him to a series of harsh reprisals. That to me is a sure sign if poor judgment, a dangerous flaw in character a leader should not have.
Meanwhile, the project stays suspended until the new design will be finished, examined, and accepted by the contractor, Mr. Yaphuckon. How long this will take, we don't know. We know though, that the unfinished building would deteriorate as long as it stands with the defective portions, bare and unprotected from the elements.
We could lose the entire project worth millions if nothing is done with it soon enough. And if it stays too long neglected, it could lose of lives yet, God forbid.
(April 16, 2003 issue)
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