Last April 2008 the regional director of the Department of public works and highways of the Cordillera Administrative Region acknowledged before a leading television station the ABS-CBN, that 79.61 % of the phase 1 project cementing the Baguio Bontoc road in Mountain Province is accomplished while the Phase two of said project is 90.67 % accomplished.Today is June 2008 and looking at what the honorable regional director pointed out it would mean the whole stretch of the Mountain province dirt road is cemented and there are only a few kilometers more to patch. I happen to pass by the road in question this month of May and saw the works accomplished, it is a sorry sight since the project has a long way to go. An ordinary citizen can immediately detect that one third of the multimillion road work project is just barely accomplished. Yet we find the Regional Director telling the nation and the people of Mountain Province that the work is almost done. When ask about some doubts in his sweeping statements, he challenged those people at the ABS-CBN to accompany him to the sight. So I made a counter statement to the same TV station and challenged said regional director to invite local media in Mountain Province and non government organizations to inspect the site with him. Up to the writing of this comment the challenge remains because we believe that still only a third of the road work is done and millions are being drained and wasted. This is just another example of justifying liquidations of millions of pesos and denying the people the benefits of the taxes they paid.
