Liabilities of DPWH Brass on the Illegal Building of P75-M Sea Walls

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

The administrative and criminal liabilities that will haunt the officials of the Department of Public Works and Highway in Region-1 and Pangasinan on their construction of the 920 meters’ sea walls could be a lesson and deterrence to other regional and provincial executives of the public works in other parts of the country.

THE INFAMOUS sea walls being constructed in the coast of Lingayen, Pangasinan. Photo credit: GMA-7

If the construction of the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) sheet file and concrete materials made walls to parry the waves of the Lingayen Gulf to flood the residential areas in the towns of Lingayen and Binmaley was indeed an idea of 2^nd District Cong. Mark Cojuangco (as what those Kapitans in Lingayen told the provincial lawmakers in their recent public hearing), DPWH 2^nd District Engineering Office’s District Engineer Editha Manual and company would have to defend themselves against the brunt of Lady Justice of our country and not Cong. Cojuangco because they signed the official documents that started the construction of the sea walls that cost the public coffer P75 million.

Paper trail man, paper trail!

Why I singled out Manuel and not include her superior DPWH Region-1 Director Ronnel Tan?

It is still on my blog what former District Engineer Simplicio D. Gonzales of the 4th District Engineering Office told me in 2022 that if a project cost more than P400 million, more than P100 million but not more than P400 million, and P100 million below, it can be implemented by the DPWH’s national office in Metro Manila, regional office, and district office, respectively.

The sea walls bleed the national treasury of P75 million and someone has to answer to our justice system for that.

It is a knowledge to many that district engineers are deterred to stonewall the ideas of their congressmen and congresswomen lest the lawmakers lobby in Imperial Manila for their ouster and deprive them of the perks of their post. But blind obedience could give them criminal repercussions like technical malversation.

The crime of Technical Malversation has three (3) elements: "(a) that the offender is an accountable public officer; (b) that he applies public funds or property under his administration to some public use; and (c) that the public use for which such funds or property were applied is different from the purpose for which they were originally appropriated by law or ordinance (Article 220 Revised Penal Code of the Philippines).

Manuel et al. deviated from the purpose of the Tourism Road Infrastructure Program ((TRIP) provided in the General Annual Appropriation of 2023 of the Republic of the Philippines that gives P75 million budget for the bay walk in the stretches of Lingayen and Binmaley. The multi-million pesos’ allocation is for the construction or improvement of access roads leading to declared tourism destinations. Examples of TRIP are drainage construction, tree planting, and asphalt overlay.

The sea walls are far from the highway where the TRIP concerns are located.

The looming charges of temporary restraining order (TRO) and injunction and Writ of Kalikasan to be filed at the Supreme Court by the protesters headed by retired police colonel Sonny Verzosa (PMA Class of 1982) for the boondoggle of the DPWH on wasting P75 million for the private contractor on the illegal construction of the walls could be a lesson to other officials of the Dami Puro Walang Hiya (DPWH), err, Department of Public Works & Highways.

What a nerve for these officials to construct when they did not acquire first an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources on an area which bar them to create a wall because there was no significant flooding – as the sand dune stops the waves according to Verzosa – and the situs is “Lingayen Gulf as an area to be devoted to sustain production of fish and other marine products, preserve genetic diversity, PROTECT NATURAL FEATURES (emphasis mine), and enhance outdoor recreation” as mandated by Presidential Decree No. 156 Series of 1993.

Susmariosep, what had you done D.E Manuel and subalterns?

Your actuation could resurrect former U.S President Ronald Reagan and snarls again his famous phrase in Berlin, Germany during the Cold War against the Commies’ Politburo leadership in Kremlin, Russia: "MR. GORBACHEV, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!" said by the former B movie actor cum the hero that defeated the Soviet Unions through his Star War's project.

That wall in Berlin imprisoned Eastern Germans to practice their basic human rights because the despotic Red Russians and East Germans discouraged them to do under duress and fear of death.

The controversial, infamous and under siege 920 meters’ sea walls in Lingayen to Binmaley (a part of the 10 kilometers stretch that cost a staggering P1.7 billion project, son of a gun!) will deprive the lowly fishermen to make a living for themselves and their families as they are barred to make an ingress and egress there with their sampans or bancas.  

This notwithstanding the sea walls become an eye sore to the residents of the capital town and the tourists who visit the area because their view of the tranquility and beauty of the sea is barred.

Sus! With those actuations by the DPWH I mentioned above, D.E Manuel and gang could not only make Ronald Reagan rises from his tomb but resurrect former President Fidel V. Ramos from the cemetery. Ramos wrote Presidential Decree No.156 known too as “Proclaiming Lingayen Gulf As An Environmentally Critical Area”.