Now is the most appropriate time to fast-track work on Davao City’s various flood prevention projects. Why, because summer has officially set in, according to the Philippine Atmospheric and Geo-Physical Administration (Pagasa).
With rains unlikely to fall heavily in any section of the city as it is expected to be all over the country, the dry season will definitely afford contractors, or any worker for that matter, all the time to concentrate their work on the project implementation.
Yes, the contractor cannot anymore find a reason to justify their delay in the project completion. But we have observed that most flood prevention or control projects in the city are usually awarded to winning bidders in time for the rainy season to set in.
Thus, the contractors are given all the time to either delay the work on the project or claim that they could not just withdraw their equipment from other project sites because of bad weather or even claim that these are stuck somewhere.
In actuality, most contractors would want to gobble up as many projects they can win in biddings even if they know that in having so much, their capacity to execute the work and equipment required is diminished to the maximum that, at times, the contractors cannot anymore find the right manpower to do all the things necessary to accomplish a project.
Look at what happened to the Magtuod-New Carmen-New Valencia road expansion and embankment rehabilitation. We have observed that several times, neither the equipment nor the persons or manpower could be seen on the project site. If there are, it is easy to find how much they have worked and how far the progress goes.
It is, in fact, why we are starting to doubt whether the project’s contractor is given a deadline for completion because clearly, the contractor seems so easy-going and seemingly looks so confident that no one will demand from him immediacy of the project. It may be worth reminding people that the project is worth P218 million. We can have a unified voice in complaining about any delayed project for as long as it is clearly neglected for some reason or another.
Whoever is the engineer-in-charge of the Maa-New Carmen-New Valencia road and drainage enhancement project definitely owes the people an explanation on the already overdue project.
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Now we can claim a certain degree of pride that the newly installed Philippine National Police Director of Region XI, P/Brig. Gen. Alden Delvo is one we can call a “neighbor” in our rural barangay in the Tugbok District. Or, that General Delvo is one of our own. He is one police officer who seems to debunk the claims of several others that our place in the rural area is prone to activities of the rebel New People’s Army or NPA. General Delvo is known in our barangay as one who spends his vacant time cultivating his farm one kilometer and a half away from our rural residence.
His farm is planted with mango trees, durian, and some lanzones or even hardwood and a few cacao trees. We learned from his immediate neighbors that he has no qualms about cleaning the fields as if he were not a ranking police officer.
For this, we are proud that he selected our barangay to be the site of his farming activities. We look forward to seeing our neighbor Police General on one of his visits to his farm.
Of course, another more affluent and politically influential neighbor recently acquired a huge mango and durian field with a rolling terrain overlooking the plains of Biao Joaquin, Talomo Riverside, Pangian, and Don Lorenzo, as well as the valley leading to the famous Davao River.
At first, there were doubts as to the real identity of the new property owner as he was reported to be using a dummy. But the owner’s identity was exposed unnecessarily when the titles were transferred in the children’s name.
We look forward to, in the immediate future, this new neighbor will formally come out and get acquainted with the villagers, including ourselves.
After all, with General Delvo having his property adjacent to the land recently bought by this affluent gentleman, he no longer has a reason to be afraid of possible rebel harassment.
Welcome the two of you, Sirs, to our neighborhood. Maybe we can bond together sooner or later.
