After a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck Davao Oriental, the province’s 2nd District Rep. Cheeno Miguel Almario lamented how corruption and the banning of rockfall netting projects limited protection for disaster-prone communities vulnerable to landslides.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier said that rockfall netting projects are ‘very notorious for corruption’ and ‘already been banned, but it keeps being implemented.’
‘What we do as district congressmen is request funding for infrastructure projects meant to protect our constituents,’ Almario told reporters on Friday. ‘The problem is, with all these corruption issues we’ve been hearing about, the ones losing opportunities are those who actually need them. We’ve had rock slides in our area too, the same place where the rockfall netting project was banned because of reported corruption,’ he claimed.
To address the issues, the lawmaker said they resorted to utilizing their ‘limited’ resources and manpower.
In August, Marcos, along with Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, Tuba Mayor Clarita Sal-ongan, and Department of Public Works and Highways officials, inspected the rock shed project at Purok Millsite Sitio Camp 6 in Barangay Camp 4, on Kennon Road in Benguet province. Marcos likewise inspected the rock netting technology employed at Kennon, saying these devices were overpriced and 75 percent of the bloated expenses ended up as kickbacks.
During the inspection, the President expressed his frustration over another pair of ‘useless’ infrastructure projects in the province. /mr