Yesterday we came to downtown Davao City to accompany our wife in her monthly check-up with the oncologist, and of course the injection of a P10,000-per dose medicine which is once a month. This is done, according to the oncologist, before he will recommend whether or not to proceed to chemotherapy sessions.
For the travel from our farm residence to the city proper we have no other choice but take the route from Talandang via Tacunan down to Catalunan Grande where we have our urban residence. In so doing we cannot help but pass on the road where Tacunan and Catalunan Grande have as boundary a small creek. The two city barangays are connected with an old one-lane steel bridge.
Based on any passer-bys’ naked eyes it is easy to deduce that the possibly post-war bridge is now in a precarious condition. That is, the bridge is a possible disaster waiting to happen.
It is very likely that this observation by many who have passed the route is shared by officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) of the national government, and by the City Engineer’s Office (CEO) of the local government of Davao City. It is also the possible reason why a roughly 15-meter concrete bridge has been proposed and eventually constructed beside the old steel bridge to serve as replacement.
We really have no idea whether or not the bridge is a project of the national government, or by the LGU of Davao City. But what we are certain about is the completion of the bridge per se’ sometime during the height of the CoViD pandemic. Yes, the bridge was completed a long time ago. But until now the approach at the Catalunan end of the span , while already partly concreted, has not been connected to the 4-meter wide road leading to the posh residence of first district Congressman Polong Duterte
Worst is that the approach of the span at the Taacunan end of the concrete bridge has not even been started and seemingly will never be. But it is our take that the project contractor has already been fully paid of the total project cost and could be laughing unabashedly to the bank with some scrupulous government officials.
If we may ask, whose project is the unused and not fully completed bridge? Is it of the local government, or of the national government? Why is it implemented despite the failure of the government to acquire road right of way? Why is the non-acquisition of right-of-way tolerated by either the national or local government when the same is a major requirement to push through with government projects like roads and bridges?
We can only imagine how the people who are religiously paying their taxes to the government so that the needed infrastructure will be funded up to its completion becomes a certainty.
Now that unutilized concrete bridge connecting Catalunan Grande and Tacunan has become one monument of neglect and corruption as well as the ineptitude of certain officials of either the national or local government.
For how long will that particular bridge remain unutilized by motorists, we do not know.
Meanwhile, the bridge is actually not totally unused. For now it serves as the favorite resting place of goats pastured by their owners residing nearby. On the other hand the concreted but unconnected approach of the bridge at its Catalunan Grande end has become the wide parking area for vehicles of customers of a coffee shop adjacent to the finished but unused bridge in that boundary creek of Catalunan Grande and Tacunan barangays.
We are just wondering why the DPWH or the CEO has not issued even a single word enlightening the public why the bridge has remained unused and why it was constructed despite the absence of a right-of-way from the property owner or owners?
Can anyone from the said agencies stand up and do the explaining? Or, are the officials of the agencies concerned are just two afraid to own up responsibilities that clearly manifest their ineptitude?
Or can we possibly hear from any candidate for Mayor, congressman and even Councilors commit to look into the project and promises to do something about it?
If not, may be it would be much better if members of the present City Council can call for an investigation on the unused project and make sure this will finally be put to full utilization.
-30-
