ANGELES CITY- A contractor which reportedly finished recently a crucial antiflooding project in Pampanga and Bulacan is also in the list of the Commission on Audit (COA) as having been involved in anomalies worth some P17 billion.
The Department of Public Works and Highways ((DPWH) listed Ferdstar Builders Contractors, whose address is reportedly at 100 San Antonio, Lubao in Pampanga, as the contractor for “drainage slope protection structure.”
The project cost was P34.4 million and was reportedly completed last Nov. 8. It covered 550 meters of dikes for repair along the Pampanga River, including 290 meters in Apalit, 130 meters in Macabebe and another 130 meters in Calumpit.
A search on the internet did not yield much information about Ferdstar except its address in Lubao, hometown of former Pres. Arroyo, and that in 2007, it was awarded 19 government contracts for road and other projects whose cost ranged from P386,622 to P24 million.
Earlier, COA Chair Grace Pulido-Tan told the House committee on good government she had ordered a special audit of 13 big construction companies, including Ferdstar, which were allegedly involved in various irregularities in nearly P17-billion worth of infrastructure projects undertaken in 2009 to 2010 during the Arroyo administration.
Tan said Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson requested the audit. “We have submitted our findings to him and because of the red flags that we have seen, we will now subject these to a thorough fraud audit and submit our report to the Office of the Ombudsman,” Pulido-Tan said.
The COA chief said part of the funding for the projects came from P10.2 billion in last-minute pork barrel fund releases made by the Arroyo administration before the 2010 presidential polls. She said notices of disallowance have been issued to the contractorscovering P184.7 million and that they had so far refunded P17.8 million.
The list of contractors engaged in anti-flooding projects in areas affected by the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo was released by the DPWH’s Mt. Pinatubo Emergency- Project Management Office during a recent forum on disaster management here.
The projects, reported as recently finished by various contractors including Ferdstar, involve some P928 million.
The inclusion of Ferdstar in the COA list has again triggered fears over the adequacy of anti-flooding projects meant to protect local folk from the onslaught of floods and even lahar flows this rainy season. But Engr. Lita Manalo, chief of MPE-PMO, said “I think that the anti- lahar megadike and other projects will hold even if Mt. Pinatubo and the Pasig-Potrero River are hit by a typhoon similar to Ondoy.”
She was mostly referring to a U-shaped dike initially built during the Ramos administration to serve as catch basin for lahar from Mt. Pinatubo flowing through the Pasig- Potrero River. The dike, which Manalo said is estimated to now cost some P3.5 billion including expenses for maintenance and repair, has served to prevent lahar flows from
burying the capital city of San Fernando and several other towns in this province.
The dike now holds tons of lahar materials whose level is above the grounds of surrounding communities. The projects, she said, are under the DPWH’s “Pinatubo hazard urgent mitigation projects.”
Manalo identified the biggest of these projects as the Spillway 3 in Bacolor, Pampanga, which was finished last July at the cost of P270 million and the Spillway 3, completed last March also in Bacolor, which was designed to protect the so-called tail dike in the area of San Fernando, Sto. Tomas and Minalin towns.
The other completed projects were mostly repair and maintenance of existing anti-flooding and lahar structures.
Manalo also said that three other projects, worth P91.4 million, are to be finished next year, including one designed to curb flooding threat in Sto. Tomas and San Narciso in Zambales at the cost of P46.3 million.
