BASCO, BATANES, Philippines—The governor of this province, known for having zero crime rate, has criticized the alleged corruption at the Department of Public Works and Highways, saying this has compromised the infrastructure development in the northern-most part of the country.
Governor Telesforo Castillejos, who just survived an attempt on his life in Manila weeks ago, said he believed the DPWH had yet to adopt an honest-to-goodness bidding of infrastructure projects to interested contractors.
The consequences, he said, have been the awarding of contracts to influential but non-deserving bidders, the poor quality of infrastructure projects and constant delays in their implementation.
“I address this concern to the DPWH. I hope it does not award projects to contractors who win merely because they are close to those in power,” Telesforo said in a recent briefing with the media and representatives of the National Economic and Development Authority who have been conducting developmental studies in the province.
Castillejos did not specify which projects in his province had been attended by corruption. But he said quite a number of infrastructure projects in Batanes suffered from poor quality and delayed implementation. The latest is the P20-million improvement of the Mahatao National Road in the municipality of Mahatao.
He said the contract stated that the project should have started in the middle of the year, but that he had yet to see any progress.
“I would really like to know how they [DPWH personnel] conduct bidding and pre-qualify bidders,” the governor said.
Castillejos said the provincial government of Batanes has been aiming to boost the local economy by attracting private-sector investors and providing more farm-to-market roads for the people, whose incomes depended mostly on the sales of their farm outputs.
According to statistics from the regional office of the NEDA, two-thirds of people in the Cagayan Valley Region, which includes Batanes province, depend on agriculture for their income.
The governor also said the still modest but increasing number of tourists in the province required the development not only of additional hotels, but also of more infrastructure projects.
“In the past years, the number of tourists that visit us is around 3,000. But this year, in January to April alone, the yearly average was already attained. We need to speed up development of this province if we want to improve on its capability to accommodate more tourists,” Castillejos said.
But he said the problems related to infrastructure development was challenging the provincial government's goal of the boosting the province's economy.
It may be recalled that the World Bank suspended late last year talks for the disbursement of a loan for the National Roads Improvement and Modernization Project (NRIMP) because of reported rigging of the bidding for contractors.
Earlier this year, the World Bank announced its officials resumed talks, but that the lending institution banned the contractors alleged to have won from the rigged bidding.
Castillejos said the provincial government has been planning to implement more infrastructure projects soon, but he said he hoped the quality of these projects would not again be compromised by flawed bidding procedures adopted by the DPWH in choosing contractors.
The projects being worked out include the Shelter Port project, which he said was aimed at boosting trade in the province, and the establishment of immigration, customs and quarantine services at the Basco Airport.
The NEDA has already completed a feasibility study for the Shelter Port project and will seek for a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency to help fund the project. Initial works for the port project, he said, would cost P430 million.
