MMDA fines 2 firms P3M over unfinished road job

Motorists avoid an excavation for fiber optic installation along Edsa’s southbound Annapolis side near Camp Crame, fenced off with warning signs and plastic barricades. It was one of several unfinished projects along the highway that caused traffic heavy traffic. INQUIRER/LYN RILLON

MANILA, Philippines — The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) would be slapping a fine of at least P3 million on two private contractors of a local telecommunication company that failed to finish their road works on Edsa by Monday morning as expected, further worsening traffic congestion on the busy thoroughfare with the return of motorists after the Holy Week break.

MMDA Chair Don Artes admonished Quezon City-based R Link Corp., which had been subcontracted to install underground fiber optic cables by the main project contractor, HGC Global Communications Ltd., an internet service provider based in Hong Kong. Globe Telecom Inc. hired the two companies.

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“I am asking for an apology [from] our kababayan who were greeted with heavy traffic earlier in the morning. We did not anticipate that a contractor will not be able to finish their road works on time,” Artes said in a press briefing at the MMDA headquarters in Pasig City.

A notice for violation would be issued promptly against R Link and HGC for their failure to comply with the MMDA’s condition that roadworks started during the Holy Week break should be finished, cleared, and made passable to all motorists by 5 a.m. on Monday.

Deliberate intent?

“I am pretty sure they already [knew] that they cannot finish the road works before the deadline. In effect, it is like they intentionally [created] this big problem. They had already foreseen [it], but they continued with their works,” Artes said.

Based on data provided by the MMDA, R Link and HGC were given permits to conduct road works for the underground installation of fiber optic cable on Edsa southbound from Balintawak in Quezon City to Boni Avenue in Mandaluyong City.

But of the 40 diggings done, only 16 were finished by Monday morning, with the rest—scattered over a 12-kilometer stretch from Zinnia Road to Boni Avenue—left open and marked off by traffic cones and yellow construction tape.

This created heavy traffic that spilled into other major roads in Metro Manila, including C-5 and Mabuhay lanes. Artes said he expected the traffic jams to persist until all the diggings were covered.

Traffic spillover

According to Artes, HGC and R Link informed the MMDA that “the delivery of cement was delayed.” “However, their reason is unacceptable and unjustifiable,” he said.

The MMDA, he added, was already computing the amount of penalties to be imposed against R Link and HGC under MMDA Regulation No. 23-001, series of 2023, with the total expected to reach at least P3 million.

The two firms face a P50,000 fine for grave violations per day for each unfinished road work. This was on top of another P20,000 fine, this time for light violation, for each road work left without a traffic marshal per day.

Artes said the DPWH would take over the cementing of the unfinished roadworks to make these passable to motorists as soon as possible. INQ