NAGA CITY -– More pork barrel funds were believed to have gone down the drain, or more precisely, to the pockets of unscrupulous contractors and DPWH engineers, with the concerned lawmaker held accountable for such blatant plunder of taxpayers’ money.

        This came about as more anomalous infra projects being implemented by the Second Engineering District of the province of Camarines Sur were uncovered anew even as DPWH District Engineer Willard Atutubo continues to ignore the request of the city’s Project Monitoring Council to furnish them copies of their respective programs of work.

        “I believe Engineer Atutubo is treading dangerous grounds with his continuing refusal to furnish us copies of the POWs, which are essential in the monitoring functions of the City PMC as mentioned in my August 6, 2007 letter,” Naga City Mayor Jesse M. Robredo wrote DPWH Regional Director Orlando C. Roces about Atutubo’s unexplained refusal to heed the request.

        The Naga PMC, recently recognized by NEDA as one of the best in Bicol, is mandated to ensure that all government projects being implemented in Naga are monitored properly to facilitate implementation, problem-solving and evaluation.

        Notwithstanding the absence of the POWs, Mayor Robredo went on to point out at least six allegedly anomalous projects out of the initial 15 that PMC has so far monitored. These projects were reportedly implemented under the congressional pork barrel funds of 2nd District Rep. Luis R. Villafuerte.

        These six allegedly anomalous projects were identified, as follows:

        (a) P300,000 road concreting/pathwalk in Bgy. Balatas which already exhibited visible scaling two months after its reported completion;

        (b) Two multi-purpose buildings, one worth P400,000 in Bgy. Balatas and another worth P300,000 in Bgy. Del Rosario, which were both misrepresented as 80% completed when only very little work has in fact been done;

        (c) A P300,000 pathway concreting project in Bgy. Cararayan which allegedly was constructed inside a private property, a clear violation of law;

        (d) An P800,000 construction of multi-purpose building and mini-park in Bgy. Lerma, reportedly overpriced considering that only a mini-park was actually constructed, in addition to some minor repair work on a police outpost built by the city government;

        (e) A P2 million road concreting project in Bgy. San Isidro, allegedly overpriced by as much as 837%, based on comparable road concreting projects being implemented by the city government.

        Robredo further informed Director Roces of substantial cost discrepancies noted in the projects wherein he found out that estimates by the 2nd Engineering District were jacked up by an average of 261%, compared to the actual cost of the same type of projects being implemented by the city government.

        “The biggest difference is in that P2-million road concreting project which yielded only a combined 187.5 lineal meters; if the city government implemented it, we could have concreted a 577-meter road,” Robredo said.

        It was learned that pathwalks being implemented by the city government would cost only P100,000.00 compared to Atutubo’s P200,000.

        Where the cost of road concreting being implemented by Atutubo’s district office was placed at P32,520.33 per linear meter, the same project would have cost only P3,470 per linear meter if the Naga city government implemented it, the city mayor added.