DEVOLVING the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) entire mandate to local government units (LGUs) would cause conflict in project implementation among localities, a government official said.
Asked if Public Works functions should be devolved to local governments, Batangas Province Vice Governor Hermilando I. Mandanas said: “No, because the DPWH is just supposed to be performing functions which couldn’t be done by the local government.”
“For example, making the national roads. They would cover not only one province or one municipality,” he also said during the University of Asia and the Pacific Forum on Local Governance and Development on Wednesday.
Earlier this month, calls to abolish the agency emerged following the widening flood control fiasco that linked several DPWH officials, private contractors and lawmakers to multibillion-peso corruption.
Meanwhile, Anna Liza F. Bonagua, director at the Bureau of Local Government of the Department of Interior and Local Government, said it would be best to retain the DPWH’s authority over infrastructure programs, citing a survey of LGUs.
The specific infrastructure projects include provincial jails, flood control, irrigation systems, communal irrigation, reclamation projects, bridges, seawalls, dikes, drainage and sewerage as well as small water impounding projects and other similar projects.
She added that agriculture, health, education and environmental matters would be best retained under the corresponding national government agencies.
Ms. Bonagua also said they have been proposing amendments to Executive Order (EO) No. 138, particularly to determine specific functions to be designated to LGUs, but none has been approved yet.
EO 138 provides the full devolution of certain functions of the executive branch to LGUs following the Supreme Court’s Mandanas-Garcia ruling. — Katherine K. Chan
