Commission on audit

SO residents of Davao City need not worry if there is a major increase in the number of leptospirosis cases as a result of possible flooding during this season of heavy rains?

Yes, according to officials of the City Health Office (CHO), there are enough medicine for those infected by the rat urine-borne disease.

This report is good news and clear assurance that the local government can immediately respond to possible outbreak of the disease.

But what about reports that a new, even deadlier social disease is also active in Davao City and the rest of the Davao Region?

We mean the disease that Sen. Panfilo Lacson has disclosed during a privilege speech he delivered in the Halls of the Senate. The disease, according to the Senator, is the one he calls “kleptopyrosis.” It is the one that is prevailing in the last few decades and have become more overt in the past three years of the present administration.

So, is Davao City ready to confront that social malady that is actually long prevalent in local governments but shrewdly “concealed” by the authorities so not even a whiff of it escapes from its hiding place other than suspicion?

And the carrier of this kleptopyrosis? Well, they thrive in agencies of both the national and local governments, Davao City included.

For example, flood prevention projects are implemented in certain flood-prone areas in the city like a stretch of J.P. Laurel Highway from Sta. Ana Crossing down to the Bajada flyover area at the Buhangin junction. Then there is another one at the stretch of C.P. Garcia Diversion immediately after the Commission on Audit (COA) and the ingress-egress of the Regional Police Headquarters.

Flood control projects were implemented in thoseareas but still the stretches are submerged in water every time heavy downpour occurs. In the stretch of the Diversion Road between two residential subdivisions shortly after the COA office flood as deep as six feet appears every time heavy and prolonged rains fall.

In the past three years also, residents in areas like Bago Oshiro, Bago Gallera, Bago Aplaya, and neighboring villages have experienced getting flooded with up to roof level in some sectors. Even the higher ground Calinan District is already getting its share of flooding.

This situation can only lead us to believe that either there were flood control projects implemented in these areas but are not working as expected; or that there are no flood control projects at all.

So far, though, we have yet to hear of ghost flood control projects in any of the city’s three districts. And we fervently hope no such “invisible” project ever happens in Davao City. There are of course flood control projects that are not completed for the longest time.

But of course there are a number of other infrastructure projects that have not been finished based on agreed time table. Other than the Maa-C.P. Garcia and the MacArthur-Bukidnon Road crossing in Ulas flyover projects, there is the Magtuod-New Carmen-New Valencia road expansion and rehabilitation project. As far as we can remember the latter project was started shortly before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic or about seven years ago.

Until now, the project appears far from completed. In fact, the completion has been overtaken by several landslides in certain sections of the road, the repairs of which are still to be fully done.

The questions that need satisfactory answer: Why is the agency on top of the project not doing anything to hasten its completion? What are blocking the sights of the agency’s official so as not to see the big slippage of the project?

Ironically, the main contractor happens to be a well-known member – at one time officer – of Davao’s and Mindanao’s leading business organizations.

And back to the “top tune” of anomalous projects these days, the multi-billion, even trillion worth of flood control projects; Davao City is lucky enough to be spared by strong and continuous rains during a series of typhoons that hit the country in the month of July. This allowed the flood-prone areas to remain dry, or at least free of water invasion. So it is missed out in the bugaboo created by the issue.

But there is no doubt that corruption is very much prevalent in big ticket government infrastructure projects in the City. Say, in the city’s one of three districts, we learned that contractors of big-funded projects are not local based. Rather, they are from Luzon. How come? Knowing the political personalities of the district we can only assume.

These days though, the massive corruption issue is getting to become the main highlight because the President admitted its wide-spread existence when he made it the main meat of his 4^th State of the Nation Address (SONA). And he appears determined to wage a total war against it if only to save what remains of the credibility of his administration.

It is, however, our take that he can only succeed in salvaging his administration’s and his personal image if he pushes hard and succeeds in prosecuting any of the public officials and private persons or entities involved, and meted the appropriate penalty for their illegal deeds.

But if the President will only be up to mouthing the names of the alleged perpetrators of corruption, then he will only be one among those politicians doing another lip service.