Monitoring team disproves pastors’ allegations on Kalinga-Abra Road

TABUK, Kalinga -- A monitoring team from national government line agencies and offices of the provincial government disproved allegations of substandard accomplishment and incapability of the contractor in the implementation of the road upgrading of the Kalinga-Abra Road.

This was contrary to statements issued earlier by 14 pastors purportedly representing various churches in the province who wrote Dept. of Public Works and Highways Sec. Rogelio Singson alleging that projects being undertaken along the Kalinga-Abra road are not properly implemented as per program of work and quality prescribed under DPWH standards.

In its report, the monitoring team said it was satisfied with the accomplishment of the contractor.

It found out on actual site inspection actual accomplishment was even higher than the 27 percent accomplishment reported by the Dept. of Public Works and Highways-Cordillera Administrative Region.

Engr. Florante Balala, Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers, Kalinga Chapter president and NGO representative of monitoring team said, the team substantiated the accomplishment report made by DPWH-CAR.

He said the output of the contractor conforms with DPWH standards contrary to the allegation of the group of pastors.

The monitoring team was composed of Dept. of Interior and Local Government  provincial director Francisco Gamatero as chairman, with Philippine Information Agency manager Peter Balocnit; engineer FloranteBalala, Col. Raul Bautista of the 503^rd brigade; engineers Teodoro Owek of DPWH-KDEO,  Saturnino Bayong of  Provincial Engineering Office and RosendoDakiwag Jr. of the Provincial Planning and Development Office as members.

Earlier, 14 pastors purportedly representing various churches in the province wrote Sec. Singson alleging that projects being undertaken along the Kalinga-Abra road were not properly implemented as per program of work and quality prescribed under DPWH standards.

The contractor of said road upgrading project took exception to allegations hurled against his construction firm.

Engineer Bon Holden C. Mangaoang, general manager of BHM construction, in his letter to the DPWH secretary and various officials of the province assailed the group’s haphazard and hasty conclusion contained in the letter of the pastors led by a certain pastor Dauz.

He said all projects his firm is undertaking underwent public bidding. “The government will not disburse a single centavo unless the eligibilities of the contractors are established. BHMC is wondering why his firm is singled out,” he said.

He added there was a similarly disparaging letter reportedly sent by Gov. Jocel C. Baac to DPWH Sec. Singson almost at the same time with the letter of the pastors.

The BHMC urged the DPWH and other monitoring groups to subject all other projects being undertaken by other contractors for rigorous inspection. 

“To be fair, let every single infrastructure project in the province be probed particularly citing the Macutay-San Quintin FMR, FBR Bridge 1, FBR Brdige 2 all in the Municipality of Rizal, the Ableg-Balenciagao, Pasil, and Saleng, Blalbalan section of the Kalinga-Abra road which was terminated, and the Mamaga Bridge to Basao Bridge Section of the Bontoc-Tabuk-Tuguegarao road,” the BHMCV said in a press statement.

All these projects are reportedly contracted to Jocel C. Baac Construction (JCBC).

Amidst the controversy, Balbalan constituents refuted the pastors’ allegations.

In a manifesto  released by various civic and religious organizations, they stated: “ We, the different organizations and constituents of Balbalan, namely the Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, Seventh day Adventists, union spiritistas, Benevolents, Liberty Baptists, free believers in Christ, streams of water ministries, KALIPIs, Senior Citizens, Farmers Groups, upon learning and reading of the news article had group meetings after which we grouped as assembly and come up with the following sentiments;

“That the construction work in the whole stretch of the Kalinga-Abra road was and is not manned by only one but several construction firms; That through a lay man’s appreciation we find the concreting project which is still on-going and undertaken by BHM construction of good quality and workmanship and better compared to the concreting done by other contractors along the stretch of the Kalinga-Abra Road;

“That the 14 church groups supposedly the ministries of the gospel implementing the values formation and Moral Recovery Program in our beloved province made a pre-mature conclusion when the project is still on-going;

“That the members of the 14 church groups are not residents nor are the ministry work based in Balbalan. Even then, the pastors should have made an ocular inspection of the project site then made comparisons to other on-going concreting projects in the other municipalities in the province.

The various groups disproved “erroneous concluding observations of the pastors.”

The manifesto was sent to Sec. Singson for his information.

Said manifesto was also signed by all barangay captains of  Balbalan town traversed by the Kalinga-Abra Road.