Private haulers offer to backfill Capitol lot; WTCI not off the hook yet

A GROUP of private haulers have expressed interest in backfilling the excavated area where the P1.3-billion Provincial Resource Center was supposed to stand.

According to Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, the Visayas Truckers Equipment and Quarry Operators Services Cooperative offered to dump their excavated materials at the project site for free.

“That’s how we’re going to proceed. Of course, inig backfill ana, ang pagspread and pagcompact ni ana (after the backfilling, for the spreading and compacting to level ground), we’ll have to use our own equipment,” Garcia said on Friday, Aug. 2, 2019.

“We will charge that to WT Construction, Inc. (WTCI). We can’t be waiting forever for him and he probably thinks that he will hold us hostage to that. Well, he better think again. There are responsible and civic-minded Cebuanos who have offered their help,” she continued.

In a letter dated Aug. 1, Visayas Truckers chairman Maurino Roma said they have excavated soil from various projects in the cities of Cebu and Mandaue that are readily available for backfilling.

As this developed, Garcia said the Capitol will not only push for the blacklisting of WTCI, but it will also seek the revocation of the contractor’s license to operate.

Garcia has already informed the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board president Pericles Dakay on plans to have WTCI’s license revoked.

“That’s what gives you the license to construct in the Philippines. Kung ma-revoke ang imong license, di na ka maka-entra og bisan unsa na (If your license is revoked, you can no longer participate in any) government projects. I informed him about our move to blacklist and the reason for that and he said, ‘Please formally inform us, too,’ because they’ll also take action,” she added.

Garcia said the WTCI has yet to respond to the Capitol since she issued a 48-hour ultimatum asking the firm to fill the excavated property on July 15.

When asked what will happen to WTCI’s heavy equipment that are still at the project site, Garcia said, “It will be buried with the rubble for backfilling because they have an obligation to the Province and yet they have not reached out to us... not even the courtesy of a reply. Their equipment will remain there,” she said. (RTF)