Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Vince Dizon and Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) adviser Benjamin Magalong did not hide their irritation during the inspection on Wednesday of the Candating flood control project which is suspected to be another alleged substandard project.
The supposed 110.20 meters flood mitigation structure was supposed to protect Candating from the overflowing of the Pampanga River.
Three of the six packages for the Candating project were reportedly awarded to Edmarri Construction and Trading.
The slope protection project was finished in 2023 but collapsed in 2004 at the height of Super Typhoon Carina.
Earlier this year, DPWH 1st Pampanga District Engineering Office said "the collapse was caused by a saturated embankment, resulting in the bending of steel sheet piles.
The structure underwent repair by the contractor but remained incomplete when Dizon and Magalong inspected it on Tuesday, September 23.
Dizon and Magalong also confronted Engr. Edgardo Sagum if he lent his license to another contractor which the latter denied.
“The government had funneled so much money here and this is what we get,” Dizon added.
He said the government had already funded some 300 million for the project since 2018.
Edmarri Construction and Trading reportedly was awarded funds in two phases. This included P91 million in 2023 and P182 million in 2024.
Sagum denied that the program is a ghost project.
“This is not a ghost project. We did the project but it so happens that one of the packages collapsed. We made it in good faith,” Sagum said.
He added that the project is now being repaired under warranty with no expense to the government.
But Dizon said that warranties do not remove contractors from culpability and their responsibility to construct projects properly.
Dizon said the project will now be subjected under the investigation of the ICI with the cooperation of the DPWH.
Former 3rd District Rep. Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales had been repeatedly called out by local reports on the said project.
“I make it clear that my only contribution is to look for funds to build important projects in the third district of Pampanga, such as the Candating dike,” Gonzales said in statement early this year.
“And just to set the record straight, I am not the contractor of the Candating dike. I have nothing to do, nor my family, with how this project was implemented,” he added.