EXPLAINER: Floods expose flaw of tunnel project in Cebu City south. VM Rama asks DPWH, 'Who's the culprit we can sue?'

CEBU. Vice Mayor Mike Rama, DPWH-Central Visayas Director Edgar Tabacon and flooding in Mambaling, Cebu City last October 14, 2020. (Photos from SunStar, DPWH website and Charlz Dotollo Tenebroso)
CEBU. Vice Mayor Mike Rama, DPWH-Central Visayas Director Edgar Tabacon and flooding in Mambaling, Cebu City last October 14, 2020. (Photos from SunStar, DPWH website and Charlz Dotollo Tenebroso)

AT A GLANCE. [1] Severe flooding at the junction of Natalio Bacalso Ave. and F. Llamas St. in Cebu City's south district last Tuesday, October 13, was caused by the closure of the cross drainage at the service road near Super Metro.

[2] Public Works and Highways Regional Director Edgar Tabacon told the City Council at its session the next day, October 14, the underpass project was started and the cross drainage shut down before the road widening could be done, which to this day is still not implemented because of RROW (road right-of-way) problems.

[3] Uproar over the flooding, with the onset of the heavy rains, has revived complaints over the underpass project and its defects. It also resurrected inquiry about the plan to build "a cistern the size of 10 Olympic swimming pools," which would catch the water and hold it until it can be channeled to waterways and the sea.

[4] The DPWH-7 chief and his staff assured the legislators they have stop gap measures for the problem, including the use of water pumps, de-silting of existing drainage lines, increasing the inlet and conduit areas, and laying of additional pipelines. If the flooding is lessened after Tuesday's "dakong baha," the temporary mitigation must be working.

[5] The questions from the city lawmakers were not explicitly answered by DPWH officials who reportedly will appear anew this Wednesday, October 21.

WHAT COUNCILORS WANTED TO KNOW and did not get categorical answers:

[1] "Where's the P700 million for the widening project?" Vice Mayor Mike Rama, presiding officer, repeatedly raised that question.

The lack of widening is blamed for the absence of drainage, which in turn is blamed for the flooding. The underpass -- started on August 7, 2017 and opened to traffic on June 16, 2019 -- carried the budget of P638 million. Is that the P700 million the vice mayor is looking for? The project was to be in six phases; it's not known which phases were completed and which were not.

[2] "Who's to blame and to sue?" There was apparently oversight or negligence when they shut down the cross drainage and proceeded with the tunnel construction without providing measures for the drainage, a point pressed vigorously by Councilor Edu Rama, along with the much-trumpeted cistern project. VM Mike Rama wanted to do more: he would go to court and hold the erring officials accountable.

DPWH in its study, Tabacon said, aimed to address both traffic and drainage concerns but it had to put off the flooding aspect when it met the RROW obstacles. As its long-term measure, it would put up some kind of drainage further ahead of the flooded area.

ABELLANOSA'S DEFENSE. Representative Rodrigo Abellanosa of Cebu City south district -- known as the congressman who secured funding for the underpass under a general appropriation for DPWH -- has been included in criticisms of the project. "It was not needed," VM Rama boomed Wednesday, "why did they put it there?" In asking whom to sue, Rama added, "DPWH or congressman," without mentioning Abellanosa's name.

In a SunStar interview of October 18, Abellanosa said the Mambaling underpass has never flooded, saying the stream of water flowing on side streets "happens naturally during heavy rains." (In Cebuano-Bisaya folk adage: "Magbaha lang og mag-uwan.") The City Council might ask Tabacon to vet the congressman's claim.

'MAG-REBOLUSYON MI." At least three councilors and Vice Mayor Rama live in the area. They bear the brunt of complaints from residents of the affected barangays and sitios and they themselves suffer from the ordeal of coping with the flooding.

The complainants also include families with schoolchildren and workers who had to commute and bear the traffic congestion for almost two years while the underpass was being constructed. If you cannot solve this problem, "mag-rebolusyon mi," said VM Rama at the council's Citizen Hour.

Residents near the underpass are still hurting from the memory of inconveniences during the period from 2017 to 2019. The problem of flooding brought by the rains must rub salt on wound.

"SIPYAT" FROM THE START. Why did the councilors fail to draw specific answers from the DPWH resource persons?

RD Tabacon was not a reticent witness. He had a lot of information to give and was generous with it. But apparently, the vice mayor and two or three councilors had their questions, each having a different thrust and barging in even before the DPWH official could answer.

Tabacon even said aloud "Sipyat ni sa pagsugod lang daan (This was a failure from the start)," which the live-streamed broadcast recorded and its audience heard. Except probably VM Rama who took a restroom break and did not pick up the line of questioning when he returned. By that time, the DPWH director began to dodge the issue, insisting that the department did try to do both the tunnel building and road widening.

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