PBBM boosts LGU, national gov't coordination

We commend President Bongbong Marcos Jr. for requiring the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to coordinate with local governments when implementing national infrastructure projects within their jurisdiction.

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According to the President, he is restoring this requirement in order to strengthen the accountability of national government agencies. An important item on the President's directive is the requirement that local chief executives must formally accept the projects before they are officially declared as "completed." He pointed out that this is a safeguard against "substandard output" by the contractors engaged by the DPWH.

The President's move is expected to "cure" some current "practices" by the DPWH, which had created problems for certain LGUs. It will be recalled that in one of our recent columns, we called attention to the practice of some DPWH officials of implementing projects without the required permits from the local government. On certain occasions, some projects were actually implemented without the knowledge of the concerned local officials.

This was not merely an issue of "disrespect." The reason is also practical. The absence of coordination watered down the sense of accountability and curtailed the ability of local governments to handle the disruption in people's lives and mobility that infrastructure projects usually bring about. The public blames local governments for such inconvenience. It is also the LGU that gets blamed for substandard and failed projects, including those involving flood control.