Who cares?

So this guy named Ronnel Cuison had the extra time and the cajones to call out on the deficiencies of both the DPWH and the MMDA through the ever popular social network: facebook. As is clearly and irritatingly depicted in the facebook interaction, there was a pointing of fingers by the two government agencies as to who was accountable for the lack of proper lights in EDSA.

RA 7924 defines the scope of MMDA duties. Section 3 in specific defines their duties as: Development planning, Transport and traffic management, Solid waste disposal and management, Flood control and sewerage management, Urban renewal, zoning and land use, Health and sanitation, and Public safety.

Now DPWH’s mandate and function, straight from their website is the following:

Mandate

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is one of the three departments of the government undertaking major infrastructure projects. The DPWH is mandated to undertake (a) the planning of infrastructure, such as national roads and bridges, flood control, water resources projects and other public works, and (b) the design, construction, and maintenance of national roads and bridges, and major flood control systems.

Functions

The  Department of Public Works and Highways functions as the engineering and construction arm of the Government tasked to continuously develop its technology for the purpose of ensuring the safety of all infrastructure facilities and securing for all public works and highways the highest efficiency and quality in construction.  

DPWH is currently responsible for the planning, design, construction and maintenance of infrastructure, especially the national highways, flood control and water resources development system, and other public works in accordance with national development objectives.

It is in my unquotable, off the record opinion that it is DPWH that should be charged with the responsibility of installing those lights. Although it may seem that there is shared jurisdiction with this problem, the DPWH is given a huge chunk of the budget (some 90 billion pesos) specifically to take care of the infrastructure and anything that goes wrong with it.

But the real question is, who cares? MMDA, DPWH, wake up! Until now, in 2012, no one is being held accountable for it or worse, no one is really taking initiative from both of these agencies to take care of the problem. If it is really not under their direct jurisdiction, it is still under their “peripheral” jurisdiction and they should call out the responsible agency for it so that someone would be held accountable. Loud. Publicly.

By Trisha Isabelle F. Fernandez Entry #04