CEBU GOV TO SUE DPWH CENTRAL VISAYAS EXECS OVER UNFINISHED UNDERPASS IN MANDAUE CITY
CEBU CITY—A multimillion-peso underpass project in Mandaue City that remained unfinished after four years since construction began has drawn the ire of commuters because of the heavy traffic it has caused in the area and has prompted the Cebu provincial government to file charges against officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Central Visayas.
Criminal and administrative charges were now being readied against DPWH officials in the region over the unfinished P711.8-million underpass project, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia announced on Wednesday.
Garcia said the unfinished project has caused tremendous inconvenience to people as well as brought economic losses due to the dilapidated state of the U.N. Avenue in Mandaue City, which is the main access road for those commuting between mainland Cebu and the Mactan-Cebu International Airport in Lapu-Lapu City on Mactan Island.
Contract termination
The civil works for the road project started in the middle of 2018 and was supposed to be completed within 990 calendar days, or on Aug. 24, 2020.
In 2019, the regional DPWH notified the contractor, B.M. Marketing, that it was rescinding its contract to build the underpass for allegedly falsifying its track record to win the bid by claiming it built and completed in nine months a 29.04-kilometer road project, called Black Mountain Eco-Commercial and Industrial Land Development Work, that a DPWH investigating team found to be “nonexistent.”
Edgar Tabacon, then director of DPWH-7, said they had no choice but to scrap the deal with B.M. Marketing due to “irregularities and concealment of information and documents.”
But B.M. Marketing ignored the notice of termination sent by the agency and continued with the construction of the underpass. Instead, it sued the DPWH-Central Visayas in 2020 and got a court injunction that stopped the contract termination. The case remains pending in court.
‘Persona non grata’
The Inquirer reached out to DPWH officials here to get updates of the case but the agency has yet to respond.
The Inquirer also repeatedly tried to reach Edgar Tiu, owner of B.M. Marketing, but to no avail.
Garcia said she would seek authority from the provincial board on Dec. 19 to file the appropriate charges against DPWH regional officials as well as ask local legislators to declare them as “persona non grata.”
The governor said she would also ask the mayors of the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu to find out if there were also other “seemingly abandoned” projects by the DPWH in their areas.
Garcia said even if there was a pending court case between DPWH and B.M. Marketing, the dilapidated road section should have been temporarily paved and asphalted so as not to inconvenience the public.
Last month, Garcia asked the DPWH-Central Visayas to let the provincial help in asphalting the road but the agency said it already sought a P13-million budget from its central office to do the temporary asphalting.
“I cannot fathom the depths of their (DPWH) agenda and how important their objective is in delaying the project,” Garcia said.