A flood-causing infrastructure project
General Santos City–Here in this city, where floods are quite rare compared to Metro Manila, Cotabato, and other low-lying Maguindanao localities, the issue is not the presence or absence of anomalous flood control projects. There is a citywide uproar about a huge infrastructure project that has instead caused flooding on a main thoroughfare in the city, causing massive traffic gridlock on any busy weekday.
In a statement released through the Philippine Anti-Corruption Czar (PACC), the General Santos City Underpass Project, or the Mabuhay Underpass Project, is considered a “monument of poor planning.” Since its start, the project has caused flooding along the highway, aggravating an already growing traffic gridlock here. It has also closed several business establishments at the Mabuhay-Bulaong and Digos-Makar junction of the national highway, since customers can no longer drive to these establishments or park their vehicles there.
Launched on June 23, 2022, this infrastructure project was slated for completion by September 2024. At present, it looks like the project has just started. Several residents interviewed during a taping of a popular nationally aired television show said that the project has become an eyesore—it shows several misaligned structures, safety lapses, and extended periods when no workers were on site, leaving some equipment and materials, like iron bars, just stacked up within the project site.
In his report dated Aug. 26, 2025, Dr. Louie Ceniza, chair of PACC, said the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) needs to explain why this project was stalled. He said, “The people of General Santos deserve answers and results, not excuses. This is more than just a delayed project—it has become an economic and social disaster. Businesses have closed, streets are flooded, traffic is unbearable, and trust has been betrayed.”
The PACC also questioned how project funds have been disbursed, and called on the DPWH and the contractor of the project to explain the lapses that have caused more harm than good for General Santos City residents.
Every time there is heavy rain in the city, this part of the highway is flooded, creating a swimming pool-sized pond that makes it difficult for motorists to cross, aggravating an already problematic traffic problem in this fast-growing city.
I pass by this part of the highway almost every day, and I always brace myself for a rough ride, with our driver having to find ways to get through parts of the road that have been destroyed since construction of this project started.
This project was implemented without wide consultation among city residents. There was also no announcement on the rerouting of traffic to ease the plight of commuters and motorists. I also noticed a lack of anticipatory thinking by whoever designed this project, since excavating the area may damage some underground water pipes that are part of the city’s waterworks system, as well as buried electric pipes of the South Cotabato Electric Cooperative. Even without rain, flooding occurs in this part of the highway and remains for quite some time, creating real inconvenience, especially for two-wheeled vehicles and occasional tricycles that manage to ply the route.
In 2024, when the project was expected to be finished, a huge stack of cut iron bars was piled within the site, and some concrete blocks were also torn down. I asked around why this was done, and whether it was the result of some mistakes in the design and execution of the project plan. True enough, a former student, who is an engineer, explained to me that the contractor realized there was a serious mistake in the original design, so the iron bars had to be cut and the concrete blocks had to be removed. To this, I asked: What will happen to the iron bars? Surely, with the high costs of metal bars, the huge piles of cut iron bars because of a “mistake” would fetch a hefty sum.
Moreover, the cut pieces of steel or iron bars also presented danger to motorists and pedestrians alike; cut pieces of metal jut out from different parts of the unfinished structure.
But I was surprised that the iron bars and cement blocks soon disappeared, and nobody wanted to talk about it. Some people must have managed to profit from this glaring construction “mistake.”
There is now a national outcry to investigate flawed anti-flood control projects. But here in my city, we complain because one huge government infrastructure project has instead caused flooding, even when there is no rain.
I wonder whose pockets are being flooded with money from this flood-causing infrastructure project.
