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Thursday, July 12, 2007

Siquijor: DPWH stupidity strikes again!

Remember that unfinished bridge the DPWH built in Loboc, Bohol (picture below) which was discontinued since it was going to hit a national cultural treasure, the Loboc Church and Belfry? Well, DPWH's lack of common sense is at it again. And this inutile agency will be damaging another national cultural treasure, the Lazi Church and Convent in Lazi, Siquijor.

According to the NCCA, the Lazi Church, which features wide wooden floorboards and coral stone walls, was built in 1857 by the Augustinian Recollects. It occupies two town blocks with a road separating the church and its large convent. And the DPWH is raising the said road by more than a meter! How stupid can they get? It's totally absurd given that the church, convent and the road which runs in between them are 30 meters above sea level.

Faisal Alih sent us this alarming picture. He notes that vehicles can no longer enter the convent grounds. He also pointed out that people will have a hard time walking between the two structures. The idiots in the DPWH reasoned out that they will build steps down anyway, but that's beside the point since the features of the place will be destroyed.

Jun Galang adds, "The important question is, are there floodings on the road that is the reason behind the construction? If there aren't, then the church will be endangered since water will flow from the street to the church compound, increasing humidity." He adds, "If the road runs in betwen the church and convent, the resulting elevation will ruin the harmony of the complex!"

It's time to move again! Mind you, it's the same DPWH regional office which built that stupid bridge in Loboc, Bohol, tried to demolish the centuries-old houses in Baclayon, Bohol and destroyed the Spanish and American colonial bridges in Alegria, Cebu. Let's all write or call the DPWH:

Hermogenes E. Ebdane, Jr.
Secretary
ebdane.jun@dpwh.gov.ph
(02) 3043221

Jerome M. dela Rosa
Director, Region VII
Region VII District Office
(032) 2348014

If the public was able to stop the construction of the bridge in Loboc, Bohol and the demolition of ancestral homes in Baclayon, Bohol; I'm sure we can also prevent the completion of this brazen disregard for heritage and utter lack of common sense which the DPWH is doing in Lazi, Siquijor.

Loco Loco Over Deco!
Shanghai... New York... Bombay... Miami... Rio de Janeiro... Manila... separated by oceans, continents, and time lines, what do these cities have in common?

Not much, except all cities are a treasure-trove of Art-Deco architecture! Come and take an arm-chair journey down the roaring 20's as we explore Manila's rich Art-Deco heritage! It's all about the age of speed, jazz, boogie-woogie and the American colonial experiment in the Philippines, do swing by and join us as we gather together and go loco over Deco!

Speaker: Ivan Man Dy
When: July 19, 2007 Thursday 6:00 PM
Where: Ortigas Foundation Library
For more information please call 6311231 local 222 (look for Aileen Matic) or e-mail ortigasfoundation@ortigas.com.ph

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10 comments:

  1. Protektahan ang kultura at kasaysayan ng Pilipinas! Mabuhay ka!

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  2. i saw the loboc snafu last time i was in bohol. crazy. i wonder if my eventual kids will find anything here in this country worth visiting. you gotta wonder whether everything that makes the country grand will be demolished, sold or parceled off to the Koreans.

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  3. Anonymous13.7.07

    DPWH is at it again! In Loboc, Bohol they built a bridge that if finished would have eaten part of the church, eliminated the plaza, and separated it from its campanile.

    Please publicize this. The problem is that some DPWH plans are made in Manila without reference to the specific site. I am told this is what happened when plans were made for the highway at Loboc.

    There is an environmental unit at DPWH that we met when we did a project for the World Bank. Around 6 year ago, World Bank convened a team to work on how to make govt units be more sensitive to THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL IMPACT OF THEIR PROJECTS, like roads. DPWH was one of the agencies we teamed up with. And, yes, they said they realize that if there is no prior assessment of impact, the project will meet with a lot of resistance.

    QUESTION: Who is funding this road project? We need to contact the funders. Also, who's the head of DPWH? Will it be Jose Atienza? Long-term plans: A seminar on cultural heritage at DPWH.

    Regards,
    Butch

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  4. Anonymous13.7.07

    Same as what happened with DOTC's National Broadband Project.
    These departments need to be reformated and those crocos should be burned alive.

    The problem with DPWH is that they repair roads during rainy days and during the school days.
    why can't they repair it during dry seasons?
    is it because theres more money to build a project at rainy days? haha.

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  5. Anonymous13.7.07

    i think it's more than stupidity that drives these mindless projects.

    it's greed.

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  6. Anonymous13.7.07

    yup saw that one in Bohol too. tsk. tsk. what a disaster!

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  7. Anonymous13.7.07

    sigh...what is wrong with these people?!? what is freakin wrong with them?!?

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  8. Anonymous13.7.07

    it's not lack of common sense but a lack of satiety for pork.

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  9. Anonymous16.7.07

    try to send an email to the inquirer inq_cebu@inquirer.com.ph

    ReplyDelete
  10. What do you expect from a bunch of wood stumps who think that roads and bridges are the most important things in the world?

    I suggest that engineering schools like FEU, MAPUA, MIT and others to create a course in culture and history in infrastructure development so that engineers will be able to integrate engineering to the life and history of the country.

    Talking about Regional Director Jerome dela Rosa: What do you expect? JEROME DELA ROSA is ONE HELL OF A CHARACTER WHO THINKS THAT HE IS THE CENTER OF KNOWLEDGE. He thinks that engineers knows best...not historians.

    If the project is P10M and below it must be a Regional Office project, thus, supervised by the Regional Director. Above P10M is implemented by Central Office.

    On second thoughts, it would be unfair to just blame DPWH for the Loboc infra project. Projects may be determined by the communities, the Congressman, LGU. This goes through a proposal making to be submitted and evaluated by NEDA and the Regional Development Council (RDC). If approved NEDA looks for funding. So, projects are not the sole responsibility of DPWH. If there are to be blamed, they would be everyone who participated in the decision making process.

    What is so fantastic is that all of them can make a really stupid decision.

    ReplyDelete