ILOILO City – The city government must not remain helpless over delayed infrastructure projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), according to Councilor Ely Estante, chairperson of the Sangguniang Panlungsod’s (SP) committee on infrastructure.
“We own this place but we are powerless over projects that bring us inconvenience,” he lamented.
Estante cited as example the drainage project on Jalandoni Street, City Proper. The DPWH contractor failed to complete it within the 256 allotted calendar days.
“Asta lang kita sa basic information about sang project,” observed Estante.
He called for an investigation to find out the cause of the delay.
From the result of the investigation, Estante hoped to craft an ordinance that would give the city government power over government infrastructure projects.
“Kon insakto ang monitoring kag husto ang planning and implementation, indi ko magpati nga indi matapos sa husto,” said Estante.
DPWH contractors may have problems, he added, and rejected the often-invoked reason, force majeure or causes that could not be anticipated and/or are beyond man’s control such as inclement weather.
DPWH Region 6 had issued a Notice of Termination to Sargasso Construction and Development Corp., the contractor of its P100-million drainage project on Jalandoni Street.
Sargasso’s contract actually expired on May 29, 2018 yet but the drainage project is only 70 percent complete, according to Engineer Mavie Gustilo, project engineer of DPWH-6.
“With over 15 percent negative slippage, DPWH-6 decided to issue the contractor with a Notice of Termination. Right now, we are waiting for their reply as part of due process,” said Gustilo.
Sargasso started working on the drainage project in February 2017.
Due to revisions in the program of works, however, Sargasso was given an additional 90 days extension.
In October 2017 Sargasso, citing unfavorable weather conditions and high tide, sought 230 days extension or until May 2018, said Gustilo.
Last month, said Gustilo, Sargasso again asked for an extension of 103 more days or until Sept. 29, 2018.
This latest request for an extension is now being reviewed by the DPWH central office, said Gustilo.
DPWH hopes the Jalandoni drainage project is completed soon so it could start with Phase 2 of
its comprehensive drainage program that aims to end the flooding on the streets of Fuentes, Mabini, Quezon, and Valeria, among other areas in the city.
Phase 2 has a project cost of P190 million. The area covered is from Jalandoni Street, City Proper to Barangay Alalasan in La Paz district./PN
When we program the project we are considering inclement weather, We have weather charg to support our claims of EOT. But it is not proven that it due to nature force or inclement weather. The government must used Liquidated Damages (LD) to finalized the Contractor for the delay and it should be implemented. The legal team of DPWH must check this violation. DPWH do not sleep, do not let this Costractor run without filing a case against them.