Contractor to donate bunkhouses
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—A contractor of the Department of Public Works and Highways has decided to waive payment for two bunkhouses that it built in Leyte province and is to donate the structures to the government as part of its corporate social responsibility.
The DPWH announced this in a statement in the wake of reports the bunkhouses built for survivors of Super Typhoon Yolanda in the Visayas region were overpriced and substandard.
The Tuguegarao City-based construction company R.D. Interior Junior Construction, which volunteered to work on the construction of temporary shelters designed as bunkhouses with toilets for typhoon victims in Barangay Tacuranga, Palo, Leyte, decided not to accept any payment for the completed project.
The firm’s owner Ricardo D. Interior, Jr. said that it was a moral obligation to help the calamity victims in Eastern Visayas.
The donation, valued at P1.59 million, was a response to the call of Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson to help the national government in the rehabilitation efforts.
The DPWH said that although none of the contractors of bunkhouses have been paid by the government pending final acceptance, Melvin Navarro, officer in charge of the DPWH in Region 2 has already requested the cancellation of the corresponding Sub-Allotment Release Order No. SR2013-12-010791 intended for the payment of the two bunkhouses built by R.D. Interior Junior Construction.
Singson said following his call for volunteerism, contractors were able to remove overhead and profit margins of about 13 percent that further reduced construction cost.
Singson pointed out that the bunkhouses were intended as temporary shelters for no more than two years while permanent homes are being constructed.
“Any identified sites for relocation should now be used for permanent shelter projects of the government, with the DPWH ready to do the site development and the National Housing Authority and private companies to undertake planning and actual construction of the permanent houses,” Singson said.
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