WE are extending our profuse Congratulations to the Davao Region’s Police Regional Office (PRO) for getting very high ratings in terms of the perception of people in the command’s performance along the policemen’s trustworthiness, their feeling of safety , and of course the level of respect the policemen in the region earn from the people. And this achievement is far from fiction.
The ratings were obtained in a study conducted by a University of Mindanao-attached research group headed by Dr. Adrian Tamayo only very recently and which result was disclosed to the public only the other day.
There is no doubt that the ratings obtained are reflective of the evolution of the police command from a mistrusted one few decades ago, especially at the height of the insurgency movement and the initial years of the anti-illegal drugs campaign, to a law enforcement body that the Davao Region’s society cannot do without.
Also, we cannot help but be proud of the Davao de Oro Police Office, headed by PCOL BENEDICTO F FACO, Provincial Director. The said police office came out Most Trusted. Other Provincial and City Police Offices though, also excelled in the other criteria used in the survey.
The high ratings obtained by the Regional Police Office XI, to our mind, should not just be a cause for jubilation among its members. It should be an inspirational take-off for the command to strive for more to sustain the support of the people in the region. They should not regress if the policemen in this part of the country should continue to be called the people’s police and not those they should fear.
Again, we are extending our heartfelt congratulations. Keep up the good work.
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Why is the Mayor of Panabo City snorting with anger against the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)? It appears that he is the direct object of the complaints of the people of Barangay Kasilak in that city for the badly dilapidated road leading to the barangay. And the dilapidation is all the more highlighted with the unfinished and very poor quality of concreting of the same road which the mayor of the city has claimed, to be a project of the national government through the DPWH XI.
So angry was the mayor that he openly said he is filing a case against the officials of the DPWH XI with the Office of the Ombudsman if only to establish the culpability of the agency in the unfinished concreting and the tacit condonation by the said agency of the contractor’s poor performance.
And how did the DPWH XI react? Well, according to the agency’s spokesman, the office is already aware of the situation and that it is about to start doing completion work as early as last week if not for the bad weather condition. Perhaps to appease the Panabo City Mayor’s frustration the spokesman, our former media colleague Dean Ortiz, assured the mayor and the complaining residents of Kasilak that the contractor has not yet been paid of the contract price. So how come that the agency was unable to oblige the contactor to finish the project? Or why has the DPWH not abrogated the contract and give it to another if it is indeed true that the DPWH has not yet paid the contractor.
We can only advise our friend Dean to tell what he said to the Marines. We have several contractor friends having projects with the DPWH. And we know that even before the project is started, it is an accepted practice in that office that so much percent will be released as advance payment. And we were informed by our contractor friends where the amount is to be used.
Our unsolicited advice to the Mayor of Panabo is: Go ahead mayor. Proceed with the filing of a case with the ombudsman. Some DPWH officials shall be made accountable for their ineptitude and lack of concern.
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And here is another project that should be looked into by the DPWH. This time it is in Davao City. We are referring to the expansion and concreting of the road from Ma-a to Magtuod to New Carmen and New Valencia.
That road is our regular route going to our rural residence from the city proper and back. We had been using the route since a few months before the onset of the CoViD 19 pandemic. The said project was started on or about the same period. And if we have to factor the very low volume of vehicles that used the road at the height of the pandemic it would have given the contractor easy time to undertake the various phases of the project.
Now the pandemic could possibly be declared by the World Health Organization as not anymore global health issue any time soon. But the Magtuod-New Carmen-New Valencia road expansion and concreting project appears to be far from complete.
We are starting to toy the idea that the project will outlast the pandemic if the DPWH or whatever agency charge of overseeing its Implementation will not come up with drastic action against its contractors. Unless, by virtue of certain “agreements” the agency concerned cannot just do disciplinary measure against the road contractor.
