Firm hits Capitol of ‘delaying’ excavation permit
TAGBILARAN CITY — Despite an endorsement of the Bohol Provincial Engineer's Office, the application of the Richli Corporation—to excavate for, and install pipelines along the route of the water supply project—has up to this time not signed and approved yet by the governor.
Officials of Richli told The FREEMAN that they are wondering why Governor Edgar Chatto has not signed yet the application, which was filed in October this year, and that prerequisites were already complied with.
A company official, quoting an opinion of their lawyer, even said the said act of “delaying approval” appeared to be a violation of the Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA).
Richli intends to supply water in bulk to Panglao island, the premier tourist island consisting of Dauis and Pangao towns, where the new Bohol airport is expected to be finished by mid year of 2018.
Provincial Engineer Gabino Redulla had signed his endorsement to Chatto of the application of Richli, represented by Elmer Lim, but the governor has not yet approved it, according to the company. The locations applied for excavation are in Barangay Poblacion of Cortes town—the junction of Corella-Balilihan road—to be restored later with gravel and concrete.
The company said it had paid P56,100 (with receipt number 2889300 dated Nov. 7, 2017) "to defray expenses for the restoration of damaged surfaces to its original condition."
The FREEMAN tried but failed to contact Chatto to get his side of the matter, because he was yet out of town. However, Provincial Legal Officer John Mitchell Boiser issued this official statement, via text message to The FREEMAN:
"There was no delay in action. Delay was about in informing Prov Gov't of Bohol on the real project. Bohol province came to know of the water supply project when the corp requested for excavation permit for the laying of water pipes.
“After review of the application, it appears that the corp is embarking on bulk water supply. Incidentally, the province has followed the provincial development and physical framework plan viz-a-viz both public and private industry.
“As a matter of fact, the province has adopted the strategy of providing bulk water supply thru clustering of municipalities, as evidenced of municipalities by Prov'l ev't council Resolution No. 44-2017 and Sangguniang Panlalawigan Resolution No. 2017-495 and the signing of Memorandum of Understanding among all component LGUs relative to the clustering for bulk water supply.
“The province was not entirely briefed on the entire of the project. Full presentation of Richli project for the first time was only Dec. 11, 2017 during the PDC execom meeting. Thus the province has to even modify its water dev't plan from purely bulk to direct water distribution.
“Transparency must be observed both by govt and private sectors. Hence, the province conducted due diligence tests even on purely private investments. Open gov't means all sectors are open to harmonize projects and programs. On the other hand, PDC and SP quickly acted on endorsement of Gov especially on investments involving natural resources and environment, public and private sectors must observe transparency to make sure local devt plans are faithfully followed and respected.”