Probe of ‘overpriced’ bridges sought

A civil society group on Monday urged the Aquino administration to cancel the “obscenely overpriced” Mega Bridges program begun under the previous administration and continued up to today.

Ricardo Ramos, executive director of the Citizens Infrastructure Integrity Watchdog (InfraWatch), said the French modular steel technology used in the Mega Bridges for Urban and Rural Development Project (MBURDP) cost “five times more” than the pre-stressed concrete used locally.

He said that InfraWatch computations showed the four flyovers built under the MBURDP in Iloilo, Bacolod and Cagayan de Oro cities had so far cost the country a total of around P1 billion in unnecessary expenses. He said that another flyover was under construction in Cagayan de Oro.

“It is obscenely overpriced,” Ramos said in an interview. “Why is the administration continuing with this project which is obviously a mega scam?”

Ramos has written Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and the Commission on Audit (COA) asking them to investigate the program, which is funded with loans from the French government.

When asked for comment, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson said: “We have submitted all the documents to COA and the (Department of Justice).”

The project, approved by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) in 2008, aims to build 10 girder-type flyovers and 72 national bridges using modular steel technology supplied by the French firm Matiere S.A.S.

But Ramos said InfraWatch computations showed that modular steel used for a single MBURDP flyover cost around P300 million when the pre-stressed concrete used locally only costs around P50 million.

He also provided a matrix showing the glaring differences in costs between flyovers built under the MBURDP and those built by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) using conventional construction materials.

Ramos said the price tag for four MBURP flyovers ranged from P363 million to P400 million. Their lengths varied from 282 meters to 305 meters.

Ramos said this meant a cost per linear meter ranging from P1.075 million to P1.37 million.

On the other hand, he said, the cost of three DPWH flyovers built in Cebu and Baguio cities in 2008 and this year ranged only from P87 million to P172 million. Their lengths varied from 278 meters to 420 meters.

Ramos said this translated to a much cheaper cost per linear meter of just P262,000 to P618,000.

“The P386 million Iloilo flyover that was completed in April 2010 cost over P1.3 million per linear meter. This is five times the cost of the Mambaling flyover in Cebu (worth P110 million or P262,000 per linear meter) that was finished in April 2011,” Ramos said in his letter to the Ombudsman.

He said that he had also written Singson asking for the details of the construction costs of the MBURP flyovers but the public works chief only gave them background information on the French loan and the Neda approval of the project.