All too obvious, if not telling, amid that field of devastation in Candating, Arayat, Pampanga visited by DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon on Jan. 30 is this soiled but unfilled-up DPWH project billboard identifying a “Sto. Cristo Construction & Trading Inc.” as contractor/supplier for the “rehabilitation of eroded Pampanga River (sic)” started on May 22, 2025 with target date of completion on Feb. 23, 2026 at the cost of P91,578,485.36.
The once ubiquitous project billboards of the bedeviled Eddmari Construction & Trading at the sunken site have seemingly gone to destruction along with the project.
Curiously, Sto. Cristo Construction & Trading Inc. has not been factored in the failed Candating flood control project, notwithstanding its major part in the rehabilitation efforts, as evidenced in that project billboard.
Curiouser yet, Sto. Cristo Construction & Trading Inc. is the Top 1 getter of Pampanga’s P15-billion flood control projects with P1.713 billion; its major projects centered in Candaba, Pampanga at Malasik River costing P1.157 billion, and Maasim River costing P341.678 million, per the sumbongsapangulo website.
What gives, Vince? Don’t tell us we are merely seeing things?
Punto Op-Ed/Contributed photos
