DPWH 8 clarifies reported ‘termination’ of projects

This has reference to the article, “DPWH terminates P563M worth of infra projects in 3 Eastern Visayas provinces,” by Joey Gabieta (1/31/20). I was quoted as the source of information for this article.

We would like to inform you that Gabieta NEVER interviewed me and has NO RIGHT to quote me in his article. To correct the published news, the Department of Public Works and Highways Region 8 has NOT YET terminated any project.

According to DPWH 8 regional public information officer Antonieta R. Lim, they emailed him a press release last Jan. 22, where it was clear that the mentioned projects were still for termination/to be terminated and that the contractors could still appeal the order at the DPWH Central Office.

SANDY T. PUA
Chief
Construction Division,
DPWH Region 8

This is in response to the letter of engineer Sandy Pua, who is the chief of the construction division of the Department of Public Works and Highways-Eastern Visayas.

Engineer Pua was correct that I did not conduct a personal interview with him regarding the article. However, I was able to get this information through a press release issued by the DPWH 8 information office headed by Antonieta Lim dated Jan. 22 wherein he was the “main source” of the information.

While he contested that the affected projects “were still for termination/to be terminated,” he was quoted in an article that came out in the Philippine News Agency dated Jan. 16 (“DPWH Region 8 stops 4 infra projects”) that these projects were TERMINATED. My story appeared in the Inquirer on Jan.31.

Also, I have exerted efforts to get the side of DPWH-8 on this matter through emails addressed to Lim and copy furnished to DPWH regional director Nerie Bueno as instructed by Lim herself as part of their protocol.

On Feb. 3, three days after my story came out, I received a response from DPWH-8 through email stating, among others, that I could not get the information I was seeking on the ground that it fell on what they claimed “exceptions to right to access to information” saying that the concerned projects were still under review by their central office.

In my story, it was mentioned that while these projects were reportedly terminated or to be terminated by DPWH-8, affected contractors could still appeal the decision at their central office.

JOEY A. GABIETA
Correspondent
Inquirer Visayas Bureau