Camarines Sur Governor LRay Villafuerte is pressing for a full-blown investigation into the increasingly decrepit condition of the Andaya Highway, which is the Camarines Sur portion of the strategic Quirino Highway that connects Metro Manila to Bicol, the Visayas and Mindanao.
Villafuerte said, “The seemingly benign neglect of the Andaya Highway in the past is another indictment of the level of massive fraud and inefficiency at the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) that has for long mired this agency prior to the latest leadership shakeup that last year propelled erstwhile transport secretary Vince (Dizon) to the helm of this Office.”
“With its defective structural design made worse by the piecemeal rehab work made through the decades, the Andaya Highway has fallen to its current exasperating state of disrepair, and it’s time for the government to get to the bottom of why the DPWH, for all the resources and expertise at its disposal year in and year out, has allowed this to happen,” said Villafuerte,
The comeback governor has called for a comprehensive rehabilitation of this weather-beaten major road even when he was still a three-term congressman representing the province’s second district.
“The investigation can be done by the Office of the Ombudsman motu proprio, or by the Congress or the ICI (Independent Commission for Infrastructure),” he said. “What is compelling at this point is for such a no-nonsense probe to happen now so we can finally know who had dropped the ball on this one, who should be held accountable, and how do we make sure that this screw up never happens again.”
A Latin term in law that means “on his own impulse,” motu proprio refers to an official act that can be taken by one party without a formal request for such an action by another party.
“The Andaya Highway is a national primary road under DPWH, and we thank President Marcos and Sec Vince for prioritizing its upgrade as part of the Maharlika Highway
In fairness to President Marcos, Villafuerte said, improvements on the Andaya Highway have been started over the past three years since he took over as President.
“The past three (3) years nag umpisa na ang improvement ng Andaya Highway since PBBM assumed office. No one should even think of getting credit for this because the credit should go to our President through Sec Vince who will implement the project. So those claiming credit and saying they will oversee the rehabilitation better shut up,” he said on Facebook. “First in line for credit, last in line for effort.”
In his Facebook post, Villafuerte said: “Ang Andaya highway ay isang ehemplo sa sobrang corruption sa DPWH, ilang dekada na puro reblocking, ilang dekada na puro tingi- tingi na budget kaya binulbulsa lang ang pera.”
“In fact, dapat mag karuon ng full blown investigation sa massive corruption in the past sa Andaya highway para mabulgar na talaga sino mga may kasalanan at nagpayaman habang nag hihirap mga tao !” he said.
Villafuerte said during an inspection trip last Jan. 16 to check out the state of the Andaya Highway, Dizon learned from the DPWH that the fault lies in the defective design of this major road in which water seeps underneath the structure.
The governor said that he and other CamSur officials had also pointed Dizon to the ramshackle condition of the Mauca Bridge in the municipality of Lupi, prompting the Secretary to inspect the bridge.
The governor said that Dizon stood at the side of the bridge while a truck passed by, and the Secretary let out an expletive after experiencing for himself how the bridge swayed back and forth as the vehicle crossed it.
Villafuerte said, “It’s a good thing that with the President’s appointment of Sec Vince as public works secretary, the DPWH is finally taking decisive action to reverse the utterly decrepit state of the Andaya Highway as the President and the Secretary have committed a comprehensive and purposeful rehabilitation of this major road over the next couple of years.”
“The Andaya Highway is a national primary road under DPWH, and we thank President Marcos and Sec Vince for prioritizing its upgrade as part of the Maharlika Highway Improvement Program,” said Villafuerte, following Dizon’s personal inspection of this major road last week.
Villafuerte said he had brought the dilapidated condition of the Andaya Highway and the Mauca Bridge to the attention of the DPWH during the time of Dizon’s predecessor, resigned Secretary Manuel Bonoan, and then-DPWH regional director Virgilio Eduarte, but his repeated complaints and appeals to them for urgent action had fallen on deaf ears.
“Mahigit two (2) years na namin sinabi na urgent for repair ang Mauca bridge kay dating DPWH Sec Bonoan at dating regional director Eduarte na mga bolero at puro na lang OO at pangako. Matagal na namin sila sinabihan na pwede mag collapse ang Mauca Bridge anytime,” Villafuerte said on Facebook.
After inspecting the highway last Jan. 16, Dizon met at the Provincial Capitol in CamSur’s capital of Pili with Villafuerte and other officials, including Reps. Migz and Luigi Villafuerte and Tsuyoshi Anthony Horibata.
Villafuerte said he and other Camarines Sur officials had also pointed Dizon to the ramshackle condition of the Mauca Bridge in the municipality of Lupi, prompting Dizon
Among the key actions agreed upon during the Provincial Capitol meeting with Dizon were the: (1) Correction of the road design in Andaya Highway sections with water underneath that cause recurring damage; (2) Installation of a temporary steel bridge at the unsafe Mauca Bridge while full rehabilitation is undertaken; and (3) Increased national funding for the rehabilitation of the Andaya Highway to be handled by the DPWH Central Office and awarded to qualified contractors.
Dizon’s inspection trip was, he said, “a very positive sign that finally maayos na ang Andaya Highway na matagal na namin sinasabi na isa sa mga graft-ridden highway na ginawang gatasan ng mga taga DPWH at mga responsable sa budget process in the past. Sige-sige angreblocking maski hindi kailangan, bilyon-bilyon na ang gastos maski mali-mali ang disenyo.”
He said that according to Dizon, the DPWH will engage with a Japanese engineering consultant to design the correct way of constructing the road, especially those portions with water underneath.
In a post-inspection press conference, Dizon had traced the poor condition of the Andaya Highway to years of “piecemeal” or limited section-by-section funding under past administrations. Right way,” Dizon said, stressing the need for full-scale and long-term road rehabilitation.
Dizon said that ongoing work on the Andaya Highway will be suspended as the DPWH prepares a more comprehensive and effective plan to rehabilitate it as ordered by President Marcos.
“So we will consolidate the funding, and then we will plan it well, including the bid out of the projects. We want big contractors to participate. Or even open it to foreign contractors, even if it’s a locally funded project,” he said. “The best way to approach this is to plan it well, with the help of Japanese consultants.”
A national primary highway spanning 92.65 kilometers (km) connecting Santa Elena in the first district of Camarines Norte through Quezon province to Sipocot in the first district of CamSur, this major road was named Quirino Highway—as National Route N68 in the country’s highway network—when it was first built in the 1950s during the Elpidio Quirino presidency as an alternative route to the Pan-Philippine or Maharlika Highway that connects the islands of Luzon, Eastern Visayas and Mindanao.
It cuts through the municipality of Santa Elena in Camarines Norte; the municipalities of Sipocot, Lupi, Ragay and Del Gallego in CamSur; and the municipalities of Tagkawayan, Guinayangan, and Calauag in Quezon.
The Quirino Highway was expanded in the 1970s and again in the 1990s, and in 2004, its CamSur portion was renamed Rolando Andaya Highway by virtue of Republic Act (RA) No. 9234, in honor of the late congressman Rolando Andaya Sr., who was budget undersecretary during the first year of the administration of the late President Corazon Aquino and then chairman of the House committee on appropriations from 1987 to 1998.
