Why are road projects scheduled during rainy season?

MANILA, Philippines – Why are there many road projects scheduled during the rainy season?

This was raised by many Iloilo residents, citing it as one of the additional factors that affect road safety in their area. 

In Rappler’s #SaferRoadsPH forum on Saturday, July 22, local officials from Iloilo City Government, Land Transportation Office-Region VI (LTO-Region VI), Department of Public Works and Highways-Region VI (DPWH-Region VI), Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group Region VI, and Department of Health (DOH) clarified audience’s matters on road constructions.

Unfortunate scheduling of projects

A student from the University of San Agustin voiced out his concerns on the scheduling of road engineering projects in the rainy season.

“I don’t mind the road constructions, but the schedule of the said projects is unfortunate because you are trying to build a road on the rainy season. We are taught in school that we should have ideal conditions in making those roads,” Rico Amuan pointed out.

Amuan added that the untimely scheduling of road projects has caused road crash incidents and traffic jams in Iloilo City. 

Responding to this, Engr. Ray Macalalag from DPWH-Region VI admitted that, if they had it their way, they would ensure the timely implementation of road projects.

However, the budget season and the procurement process prevent them from doing so. Macalalag explained that the budget has to be approved before going through the preliminary detailed engineering process. The whole process would take months. 

In the Philippines, the budget season usually starts in January, after Congress passes the General Appropriations Act which often takes place at the end of December. 

“When you procure your projects (after), it takes almost a month sometimes because we have a lot of infrastructure projects which gives the contractors a hard time in implementing more projects… which happens beyond our control” Macalalag added.

Iloilo City Mayor Jed Mabilog agreed with Macalalag’s clarification, also citing the bidding process of project budgets which takes 3 to  6 months at best to accomplish. 

Mabilog also stated that it is almost impossible to begin road constructions due to the project implementation process beginning at June which happens to be the rainy season in the Philippines.

“We have been appealing to the Congress, as well as the Commission on Audit, to reduce the procurement time otherwise we would get in trouble with the Commission on Audit come period of auditing,” Mabilog concluded.

Based on records from the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO), human error remains as Iloilo’s primary factor for road crash incidents. (READ: With nearly 5,000 crash incidents, how do we make Iloilo roads safer?)

Held at the University of San Agustin in Iloilo City, the #SaferRoadsPH event is the third forum on road safety conducted by MovePH, Rappler’s civic engagement arm. – Rappler.com

Hannah Mallorca is a Rappler intern