By Tracy Cabrera
Recently appointed Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) secretary Giovanni ‘Banoy’ Lopez has ordered the relief of four district engineers following allegations of corruption, extortion and the submission of falsified documents in several infrastructure projects.
According to Sec. Lopez, the sanctions, which include preventive suspension, is part of his administration’s effort to enforce a ‘one-strike policy’ against administrative irregularities in the DPWH.
Ordered relieved from their posts were district engineers Hermon Ines of DPWH Tarlac’s 1st District Engineering Office, Saidale Mitmug of Cotabato 3rd DEO, Amron Mitmug of Lanao del Norte 2nd DEO and Engr. Clifton Valencerina, who is the acting officer-in-charge of Apayao 2nd DEO.
In separate memoranda, Lopez also ordered the suspension of Ines and Saidale over allegations of corruption.
The secretary explained that Valencerina was given the same sanction over extortion of the SOP or standard operating procedure, which is a euphemism for payoff or grease money from projects.
On the other hand, Amron, was accused of committing project certification irregularities.
Lopez noted that a central office audit revealed that Amron submitted false supporting documents and signed Certificates of Implementability for 59 projects under the proposed 2027 budget that were actually unimplementable.
“We are currently preparing the budget and we have consistently emphasized that project proposals submitted for inclusion must meet all prerequisites, including the Certificate of Implementability. This official simply signed off on them, but when we evaluated the submissions, it turned out that 59 projects were not implementable at all,” he cited following an inspection of flood control projects in Calumpit, Bulacan.
The public works chief warned field officials against treating technical pre-construction certifications as mere administrative paperwork.
“Th(is) requirement is not a trivial matter. Th(is) is precisely why we demand that implementing offices—the RDs (regional directors), DEs (district engineers) and ADEs (assistant DEs)—personally certify that a project is truly implementable so that once funds are released, we can immediately execute,” Lopez pointed out.
