Accused in P298-million Naujan flood control case says no equipment for project inspection

A former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) official on Thursday cited the lack of equipment for the absence of a thorough inspection of the allegedly substandard P289-million flood control project in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro.

Lawyer Dustin Jay Condez, counsel of DPWH 4B project engineer Felisardo Casuno in the malversation case involving the project, made the disclosure before the Sandiganbayan Sixth Division.

Condez told the anti-graft court that the defense will present Jonathan Araullo, officer-in-charge of the bureau of quality and safety in DPWH Region 4B, “to testify on the absence or inadequacy of construction equipment to correctly verify the depth of the embedded sheet piles” for the project.

Araullo is set to testify on Tuesday, September 29.

Accused Casuno, for his part, will take the witness stand on October 1.

Back in July, Casuno’s co-accused Montrexis Tamayo told the anti-graft court that conducting a regular inspection on the project would be "impractical” because the office of the DPWH Mimaropa (Region 4B) is located in Quezon City, which is very far from the location of the project site along the Mag-Asawang Tubig River in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro.

Tamayo is the former officer-in-charge of the Planning and Design Division of DPWH-4B.

Another accused in the case, DPWH Region 4B official Dennis Abagon, also earlier told the Sandiganbayan that he signed the certificate of inspection for the alleged substandard P289-million flood control project in Oriental Mindoro without verifying its status.

In filing the malversation raps, Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano said the steel sheet piles used for the P289-million road dike in Oriential Mindoro were grossly below the required standards based on the September 9, 2025 inspection conducted by DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon and Oriental Mindoro Governor Bonz Dolor.

Specifically, Clavano said the measurements of the steel sheet piles showed that an exposed pile length of 2.5 meters and 0.6 meters embedded in the pile cap for a total of only about 3.0 meters—far from the 12-meter specification stated in the Detailed Engineering Design of the project. — BM, GMA News