A couple of weeks ago, Gov. Pam Baricuatro asked the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for a complete list of flood control projects of the National Government in the province amid reports that Cebu is one of the provinces that has the most number of such projects.
That she had to make the request illustrates what ails the relationship between national agencies and local government units (LGUs). Basic courtesy would have already persuaded the DPWH to brief the governor on what they are doing, have done, or plan to do in her turf immediately after she assumed office. It seems, however, that that virtue is scarce in the agency.
But where virtue fails, the law does provide. The Local Government Code is very specific: “National agencies and offices with project implementation functions shall coordinate with one another, and with the local government units concerned in the discharge of these functions.”
The second sentence of Section 25 (b) of the Code defines in unmistakable terms the scope and purpose of the coordination: to ensure the participation of LGUs both in the planning and implementation of national projects.
It is, of course, possible that the DPWH had coordinated with former governor Gwen Garcia during her term and that since these were projects that were already ongoing, they thought that there was no more need for them to repeat the process with the new governor. Indeed, the transition from the old to the new provincial administration had not been smooth. But that known and widely publicized fact made it imperative for the DPWH to submit a list of its projects to the Capitol again without being asked.
Two weeks have passed since Baricuatro told the DPWH to furnish her the data and I’d like to believe that the agency had already complied fully by sending a list of all its projects in Cebu, not just flood control, but also school and other buildings, roads and bridges together with the names of the contractors, the project cost and the percentage of completion.
The perception that there is corruption in the DPWH is fueled mainly by the mystery shrouding its transactions. A little transparency will not hurt.
And now for feel-good news.
Last Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, our messenger went to a building across our office to pay our water bill only to discover that the money and the bill were missing from his pocket. His efforts to locate them, which included reviewing the video on our building CCTV, proved futile.
Unknown to him, a motorcycle rider and his lady passenger found the missing items and, discovering that the bill was for a house in Sambag 1, proceeded to the barangay hall to return the money, never leaving until the owner claimed it.
Thank you, Nikka Diaz Abrajano and Ariel Mercader. The amount may not have been much but your honesty and the effort that you took to make sure it was returned to the owner are outstanding. May your tribe increase.