Reader responds to Mayor Leni's reply on Plaza Quezon project

OPEN LETTER - 2

December 16, 2025

HON. MARIA LEONOR GERONA ROBREDO

City Mayor, Naga City

Subject: Multi-Purpose Building Project at Plaza Quezon

Dear Honorable Mayor:

This refers to your letter dated December 10, 2025 in response to our open letter dated Dec. 4, 2025 regarding the above-mentioned subject project. Madam Mayor, with due respect, we observe that the contents of the said response do not fully address the issues raised in our open letter. The open letter was intended to seek clarification on why the project was not completed before the fiesta and why, up to now, it has not yet taken off. The public deserves to know the real status of the project.

1. Why was the project not completed before the 2025 Peñafrancia Fiesta?

We were expecting valid and reasonable justifications for how such a small and simple project could have miserably failed to be completed, and even up to now, no signs of serious construction activities can be observed. The failure of the city government to provide such justification would only lead to the conclusion that it had a hand, directly or indirectly, in that failure. A suspicion of an anomaly cannot be discounted, especially now that so much corruption is being uncovered. The Nagueños deserve to know the truth.

2. Why are there no progress reports being submitted by the contractor?

The Multi-Purpose Building Project at Plaza Quezon is the project of Naga City government and, therefore, should be under the supervision and control of the Office of the Building Official (OBO). At any given point in time during construction, this office should know the status of the project to be able to anticipate whether the target completion is achievable on the designated date. The OBO appears to be helpless, being unable to compel the contractor to submit the progress report.

3. Why is there no billboard?

The billboard is intended to provide the public with general information regarding the project. The non-posting of the billboard is a clear indication that the city government, as the proponent, is not yet ready to disclose the totality of what the project will be. This is very apparent because there are no serious construction activities observable at the project site, indicating that there is no final program of work to follow to allow for the full blast of work.

4. Who is the contractor?

It is mentioned in paragraph 3 of your response that on Nov. 18, 2025 a “Notice of Deficiency” was formally issued to Engr. Virgilio C. Eduarte, the RD of DPWH Bicol regarding the 55.29% negative slippage as sufficient ground for the termination of the contract. May we know who the contractor is and whether that contractor was terminated or not. If terminated, is there a new contractor? If not, may we also know why not terminated.

5. Contract documents

In item 4 of our open letter, we requested your office to provide us with a copy of the contract documents and allow us to inspect the site so that we can conduct our independent evaluation of the actual accomplishments. We believe that the contract documents are considered public documents, and our request is legitimate. There were no comments regarding this request in your response.

Refusing to grant our request may be interpreted either as: a) confirmation of the suspicion that no proper and complete engineering design documents are yet available to be able to compose an enforceable construction contract, or b) hiding some incriminating documents.

6. Lack of transparency

The last sentence in your response states, “Nagueños deserve assurance that this project will be properly completed.” Due to the lack of transparency on the part of the city government in administering this project, the Nagueños doubt this assurance. Again, this would be an empty promise unless the issues we are raising are properly and promptly addressed.

We hope that the good mayor will not be offended by the openness in expressing our sentiments about the project.

Thank you,

Very truly yours,

Wenfredo A. Firme

0908 557 9911

Member: Mga Taga Kantong Putikon