ICI adviser finds damaged flood control project in Davao City

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Former Philippine National Police chief Rodolfo Azurin, special adviser and investigator of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), said the commission is looking into why a flood control project along the Davao River here was already damaged only months after it was completed last year.

Azurin said the ICI has taken samples of the materials used to build the dike to check if the project’s contractor followed the specifications approved by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

“We saw that in less than two years, the project was already damaged, but we still have to review the contract with the DPWH so that we can determine what sanctions we can impose on the contractors and the implementers of the project,” Azurin told reporters here.

“We can’t say yet that it’s substandard. We still have to subject it to a series of tests, [that’s why we took samples of the] materials for quality control so that DPWH can determine whether they were using the right materials,” he said.

Residents disappointed

Residents who live in the area said they were happy when the dike was finished last year because they were always fearful every time it rained because of the rise in the river water.

But according to a resident, they were disappointed when, two months after it was completed, the dike was already damaged and part of the river water flowed into the embankment where their houses stood.

The residents also showed a makeshift bridge that they constructed over the embankment, but a 7-year-old and a pregnant woman were injured when they fell over it.

Azurin was joined by Public Works Undersecretary Arthur Bisnar and Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong to inspect three of the 51 questionable projects earlier flagged by the DPWH in the Davao region.

‘Nothing to hide’

Meanwhile, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte lashed out at Act Teachers Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio, who earlier said they reviewed 121 flood control projects along the Davao and Matina Rivers from 2019 to 2022, and found that around 62 of these were supposedly “awarded without details.”

“Let me make this clear—Davao City has nothing to hide,” Duterte said in a statement.

“Every single flood control project along the Davao and Matina Rivers was implemented, inspected, and validated by the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Commission on Audit (COA). The structures exist. They are serving the people. They are not ‘ghosts,’” he added.

READ: Paolo Duterte to Tinio: Visit Davao and see if there are floods

He also told the ICI: “Stop pretending this is a ‘national audit,’ when you keep flying your people — retired police, recycled appointees, and non-engineers — to Davao just to take photos beside working projects. If you want credibility, send real engineers, not political operators,” said Duterte, who again called the president “bangag.”

He dared the ICI to look for ghost projects in Luzon, not in Davao, where they can see the projects standing and being used by people.