DESIGNED TO CRUMBLE - This is Guijalo Port after the relatively mild typhoon Milenyo. After super typhoon Reming which hit Bicol at presstime this facility must have been completely demolished.

The Department of Transportation and communication (DOTC) which built only four years ago the Guijalo Port has doggedly insisted that the facility was built “strictly in accordance with the approved plans and specifications of the project” even if part of the P72 million structure crumbled during typhoon Milenyo last September. In a statement faxed to CRANE MONITOR Project Manager Cely Aclao of the DOTC Special Reform Related Feeder Ports Development Project (SRRFPDP) maintained that the port which in DOTC record is called Caramoan Port was built strictly according to specifications because it was a “foreign- assisted project and the implementation was supervised by experienced consultant and engineers.”

Aclao also corrected the CRANE MONITOR story in the October 31, 2006 issue saying the project was funded by the Japan Bank for international Cooperation (JBIC) not by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Originally estimated to cost only P53.6 million, the project actually cost nearly P20 million more when completed on April 15, 2002. It was turned over to the Caramoan LGU on December 9, 2002.

Three other ports were simultaneously built from the same funding source in Camarines Sur along with the Guijalo Port (Caramoan Port) – San Jose Port at sitio Talisay barangay Dolo which was originally intended for barangay Sabang; Tinambac Port at barangay Tamban and Pasacao Port. Only the Guijalo Port suffered damage during typhoon Milenyo even if the calamity did not directly hit Caramoan as there was hardly any damage on agriculture and supposedly weaker structures in the municipality.

On learning of the DOTC reaction, several knowledgeable Caramoan residents with technical background on port construction urged that a formal investigation be conducted to determine the veracity or falsity of the DOTC claim and hold the agency responsible for implementation defects.

“DOTC cannot just hoodwink us into believing its clumsy explanation that the port was built according to plans and specification simply because it was a foreign-assisted project”, several Caramoan engineers including those holding key positions in the government said.

“It is very obvious that the project is substandard and very weak and is liable to totally collapse by the next typhoon”, the same Caramoan engineers said.