‘Highway robbery’ ongoing all over the country

Twenty-five percent of our population are living below the poverty line. In our midst are people eating less than three meals a day. Yet, brazen corruption remains rampant.

I regularly go to San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, from my home in Marikina. Almost every time, I would see unnecessary road reblocking being undertaken: Roads that are perfectly fine are being drilled and replaced with new cement. Belfast Avenue in North Fairview—near SM Fairview—is being “repaired” unnecessarily by Azamara Construction; a stretch of Quirino Highway in Lagro—just off the rear of La Mesa Eco Park—is also being reblocked unnecessarily. Taking place along numerous stretches of the national highway connecting San Jose del Monte and Marilao, Bulacan, are unnecessary road reblocking works. Seeing such wastefulness reminds me of someone’s famous words—that we are a rich country pretending to be poor.

Corruption kills. I hope President Duterte and his team look into this matter. Maybe Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano can spearhead a Senate inquiry into this modus operandi that, I’m sure, is happening all over the country. It’s time we held accountable the officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways and the congressmen behind this “highway robbery.”

There should be a law to prevent this form of wastefulness. Why not use the funds to construct irrigation systems instead? Or, if we pooled the funds on these unnecessary projects, we might be surprised that it could already bankroll a whole, new stretch of railway line.

President Duterte is building a hotline (8888) to receive complaints on government inefficiencies. In the meantime, could a web portal be set up so citizens could upload videos of road reblockings so the corrupt, unimaginative officials behind these wasteful projects could be exposed and prosecuted?

—CHESTER C. CHANG, [email protected]