Capitol resource center project site now backfilled; WTCI still not off the hook — Gwen

Excavations made at the proposed site of the scrapped 20-storey resource center have been fully backfilled as of Wednesday, October 30, 2019. | Rosalie Abatayo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The proposed site of the scrapped 20-storey Cebu Provincial Resource Center have been fully backfilled as of today, October 30, 2019.

But the Cebu provincial government said that this does not make project contractor, WT Construction Inc. (WTCI), off the hook.

In an interview this afternoon, Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said that the Capitol can still exercise its discretion to sue the construction firm for negligence for ignoring her earlier call to have the excavation site backfilled.

Since it was the provincial government that worked on the backfilling, Garcia said they may later on demand refund of the cost of the work done from WTCI.

The governor said that they may also decide to seek refund of the cost of demolishing structures which WTCI installed in the area when they started the initial stages of the groundworks for the resource center project, Garcia added.

Now that the area had been backfilled, Garcia said they could already proceed with a plan to convert this into a park and parking space.  She already gave instructions for the Provincial Engineering Office (PEO) and the Provincial Agriculturist Office (PAO) to come up with a harmonized design for the planned park and parking space.

Garcia had works on the foundation of the 20-storey structure stopped when she assumed office on July 1, 2019.  WTCI had already started digging at least two holes in the area then.

The Capitol already sent letters to WTCI to ask the latter to backfill the holes but the construction from never responded.  They also snubbed the 48-hour which Garcia issued on July 18.

Backfilling was finally started after a group of haulers and truckers in the Visayas volunteered to provide the filling materials for free in August.  The Provincial Engineering Office did the compacting and levelling works. / dcb