Cayetano Chides DPWH for Rising Cost of New Senate Building

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, chairman of the Senate Committee on Accounts, stated that the rising cost of the new Senate building (NSB) could have been avoided if the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) had consulted the Senate, a key stakeholder in the project.

Cayetano noted that the Senate was not consulted before the Detailed Architectural and Engineering Design (DAED) of the project was finalized.

“How could we have avoided those revisions? Looking back at all these papers that you have submitted to my office, these are all avoidable,” Cayetano told the DPWH during the hearing on June 3, 2024, regarding the review of the NSB.

Cayetano said that the review of the NSB construction aimed “to establish a clear completion date, cost, and design that the Senate and the public can rely on.”

He argued that the ballooning cost of the construction was “avoidable” had the DPWH, as the project manager of NSB, followed the “standard procedure” of consulting the Senate before approving the DAED of the building.

“How can you make a DAED if you do not talk to the people who will be using the building?” he said in Filipino.

“If you made all the revisions before DAED, is there a corresponding payment? But you did not talk to the Senate before DAED. You only talk to them after it, so the cost has increased,” he added.

DPWH responded that they could not “foresee” the design revisions, which required more spending for the project.

Cayetano insisted that this could have been avoided if the DPWH initiated discussions between the Senate and Hilmarc’s Construction Corporation, the project contractor. “Before DAED, you do not redesign fees since there is not yet a detailed design,” he said, emphasizing the correct procedural approach.

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