• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
San Carlos City Mayor Renato Gustilo has asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate the P306-million flood control projects supposedly implemented in the northern Negros city by three contractors from northern Luzon.
Gustilo said yesterday that he and even the local Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) are not aware of such flood control projects.
He made the clarification after he received a letter and documents from the DPWH central office asking if such projects have already been implemented and completed.
Gustilo said his signature and that of Engr. Rodney Flores in the certificates of completion and acceptance were forged.
Flores was mistakenly designated as the city engineer.
The mayor said that while there was such flood control projects implemented in San Carlos City, it was undertaken by contractors in Bacolod City under the DPWH engineering district.
Based on the documents he received from the DPWH central office, Gustilo said the projects include the P151.5-million flood control project at Palampas River in Barangay 1 supposedly undertaken by A.P.O. General Construction from the Mountain Province; P77.5-million flood control project in Ando-on River, Barangay Poblacion allegedly handled by E.K.C Construction and Aggregates from Benguet; and P77.3 million flood control project in Jigalaman River, Barangay Guadalupe undertaken by Jaben General Contracting and Engineering Services, also from Benguet.
Based on the investigation, the DPWH District Office denied the existence of such projects as allegedly being implemented by the three contractors.
Gustilo said he already sent a letter to the NBI, requesting for investigation on these flood control projects.
In his letter to NBI chief Jaime Santiago, Gustilo said “the foregoing projects are, without any iota of doubt, ghost projects”.
He added that the San Carlos City government never entered into a contract with the three contractors, who are not included in the official registry of suppliers/contractors maintained by the city government. “There is no existing record pertaining to the construction of flood control at Ando-on, Jigalaman and Palampas Rivers, all in San Carlos City,” Gustilo further said. | GB
