Photo Release

Probe on collapsed bridge: Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano starts the probe on the collapse of the Cabagan-Santa Maria bridge in Isabela Friday, March 14, 2025. A portion of the bridge connecting the town of Cabagan to Santa Maria had collapsed last February 27, less than a month after it was completed and opened to the public, leaving six people injured. “The mission of this bridge is to transform the countryside. It is a gateway to the Cordilleras and a very beautiful project. But now let us just say that it is a symbol of our failure as a government,” Cayetano said during the Blue Ribbon Committee hearing. The senator asked Undersecretary for Regional Operations Eugenio Pipo Jr. to submit to the committee the names of errant contractors that were blacklisted and disciplined by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the total number of contractors registered with the agency. Cayetano also focused his investigation on the design of bridges across the country and their load-bearing capacity, among others. He expressed alarm that a similar incidence might occur in other parts of the country. Cayetano lamented the slow investigation being done by the DPWH on the matter. “If this was Japan or Singapore, many would have already resigned and then they would have findings by now since it's two weeks, but since this is the Philippines…all of you are doing their best but there is no structure, no protocol,” Cayetano said in Filipino. (Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)