KIDAPAWANCITY (MindaNews/26 May) — Residents of low-lying villages in the towns of Magpet and President Roxas in North Cotabato are blaming the latest flashfloods to a damaged dike along Kabacan River, one of the biggest rivers in the province.
The dike, constructed in late 2009, suffered cracks in 2001 and more Thursday night due to rampaging waters, Mario Calayco, chair of Barangay Poblacion in President Roxas, said.
Evelinda Baliguat, chair of Barangay Binay in Magpet town, said they monitored the first crack of the structure in July 2011 when flashfloods hit her village and nearby areas.
“Months after the dike was constructed, we already saw the crack. It was all the more damaged when a strong flood hit the village last Thursday. What will happen to the dike if a stronger flood hits the village again?” asked Baliguat.
Magpet Mayor Efren Pinol believes the materials used in constructing the multi-million dike were sub-standard.
“I am not an engineer myself but by merely looking at the dike, I can say the materials used were not of good quality or sub-standard,” he said.
Data showed that in 2009, some P30 million was released to fund the construction of a concrete flood-control dike at the boundary of Barangay Tuael in President Roxas town and Barangay Binay in Magpet town where the heavy concentration of water of Kabacan River coming from the mountains is situated.
The provincial government, then under Governor Jesus Sacdalan (now Representative to Congress), released from its calamity funds some P8 million to fund the project, while the rest of the P30-M budget was sourced from the national government, in particular from the National Disaster Coordinating Council now National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
Pinol said that even before the project was completed in 2009, he had complained to the office of then Defense Secretary Gualberto Teodoro, concurrent Council chair, about the program design and the materials used but he claimed his complaints were not acted upon.
“I questioned the amount of the project. I know this project was highly anomalous, so controversial,” he stressed.
Pinol said he would again ask the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in North Cotabato to look into the structure.
Pinol said the DPWH Cotabato first engineering district is headed by Engr. Mamintal Taha. However, the construction of the structure was not completed under Taha’s leadership, the mayor explained.
“We demand that the DPWH investigate the matter, check on the materials used, and conduct profiling of the structures so that measures would be undertaken soonest,” he stressed. (Malu Manar/MindaNews)