ANGELES CITY – The Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM) and a group of Korean businessmen are joining the call of Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan to speed-up road works in the city.
PGKM Chair Ruperto Cruz said contractors that failed to meet the deadline should be charged in court as well as banned from ever doing business with the city again. If only to answer for the business opportunities lost and the investments their haphazard work drove away.
He said PGKM supports Pamintuan’s bid to hasten the ongoing road works in the city and added the multi-sectoral advocacy group will also be filing cases against erring contractors if nothing is done to speed up their work.
The Korean group which tied up with the PGKM cited the inconvenience caused by the roadworks that greatly hampered their businesses, causing lost opportunities. They said road construction should be hastened for normal business to flow.
This is not the first time Korean businessmen joined forces with the PGKM, having been part of the Kilusan Kontra Amoy coalition in the fight against air and water pollution caused by piggeries and poultry farms here and in Porac town.
Korean businesses occupy the Friendship Road which is part of the Clark Circumferential Road where a road widening project is ongoing. Cruz said contractors that lack the necessary equipment to finish their work on time should refrain from participating in bidding for road works in the city. “They should be disqualified,” he said.
Cruz said the delay in the road works along the MacArthur Highway in Barangay Sto. Domingo should be a wake-up call for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to ban contractors that failed to deliver.
He also cited the seemingly endless construction years ago of a road drainage project funded by SM that was dug-up along the MacArthur Highway in the Balibago district to prevent flooding. But despite the extended period of construction, the drainage proved inadequate with the rising floodwaters brought by the monsoon rains destroying at least two classrooms of the Systems Plus College and several sections of business establishments along the creek embankment including the Stardust Hotel.
Now, the drainage is again being constructed, the PGKM laments. “There is clearly a deception here which results in endless construction and huge business losses.”
Meanwhile, the delay in the road works is compounded with the onset of the rainy season, Pamintuan said, fearing that they might not be finished in time for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit here in January next year.
During a meeting at the city hall last week, the mayor told contractors to hasten their work or face charges. “I am giving local contractors a week to go back to normal working operations at the Pandan- Magalang Road widening project,” Pamintuan said, referring to the P60-million project under the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) which was contracted to JQG Construction.
“Finish the projects fast or we will file cases,” Pamintuan warned, demanding “overtime work” from the contractors including JQG. Pamintuan also urged the DPWH to “disqualify the contractors if they can’t catch up.”
The widening of the Pandan-Magalang Road has been stalled a second time even as the JQG Construction firm claimed it had to wait for the completion of some of 31 drainages in the area first.
