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MYSTERIOUS RUSH REPAIR – The DPWH Third Engineering District in Camarines Sur started on Monday, January 28, 2008 rush repair work at the Lagonoy – Presentacion section of the Caramoan Peninsula Road now called Gov. Felix Fuentebella Highway because of the scheduled visit of President Arroyo to Camarines Sur who may have in tow investigators who will look into reported unimplemented projects in the district costing more than P170 million. Whatever emergency rehabilitation work is done now cannot hide the monstrous anomaly according to observers. Photo shows former Councilor Jose Dialogo, Jr. who has volunteered to testify that superfi cial repair work was being done just now even on Sundays as photo was taken Sunday, February 3, by the PENINSULA MONITOR photographer Andie Geñorga. The Caramoan Peninsula Road was not passable since September last year because no repair work was undertaken despite seven projects each costing P14,475,000.00 supposed to be implemented in the road section alone. |
Investigation of alleged unimplemented but paid projects in Camarines Sur is expected to commence soon starting with a project package all within the Third District of the province supposed to have been finished before the May, 2007 elections which have cost the government about P170 million.
As this developed panicky DPWH Third Engineering District personnel began Monday, January 28 repair works along the Lagonoy-Presentaction section of the Gov. Felix Fuentebella Highway in what could be an attempt to cover up for the alleged huge anomaly.
Those responsible, including contractors used, could be charged not just for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act but for plunder because of the amount involved.
The projects consisting of P12 segments each with identical costs of P14,475,000.00 mented under the supervision of the DPWH Third Engineering District in Camarines Sur after bidding was conducted sometime in November, 2006. Seven segments were supposed to rehabilitate and upgrade the Caramoan Peninsula Road also known as Gov. Felix Fuentebella Highway but no construction work of the magnitude was ever seen along the route from Lagonoy to Caramoan.
Meanwhile, in a letter to DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane, Jr. Congressman Luis R. Villafuerte said he is “inclined
to request for a congressional inquiry” into the reported anomaly.
The suspected massive fraud has also been brought to the attention of President Arroyo and Presidential Management
Staff Chief Cerge Remonde by Arhbishop Leonardo Z. Legazpi, O.P., D.D. and Bishop Manolo A. de los Santos, D.D. in a letter following the DPWH decision to stop construction work at the Caramoan coastal road.
The bishops said they felt the plan to transfer funds already allocated for the coastal road to the Gov. Felix Fuentebella Highway may have been triggered by the need to cover up for the allegedly unimplemented projects in the mountain road. PENINSULA MONITOR had carried stories since August, 2007 about the suspected multi-million peso anomaly.
Possibly unaware of the scandal, Secretary Ebdane may have been convinced of the need to rehabilitate the Gov. Felix
Fuentebella Highway than pursue the Caramoan coastal road. But if projects costing more than P100 million from the P170 million project package supposed to be spent on the Gov. Feliz Fuentebella Highway were really implemented the whole 80-kilometer route would have been considerably upgraded.
But the road route was not even passable since last year and the Lagonoy-Maangas section in Presentacion town has only been passable since the emergency repair work was started last January 28.
