PBBM SAYS ISABELA BRIDGE COLLAPSE WAS DUE TO POOR DESIGN

By Celeste Tamayo

MANILA — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. stated that the designers of the Sta. Maria-Cabagan Bridge in Isabela should be held responsible for its collapse, citing poor design as the primary cause.

“Who is responsible is basically who made the design, because their design was poor. Look what happened,” Marcos said.

“Ang puno’t dulo nito design flaw. It is a design flaw, mali ‘yung design. The history of this is that the funding was supposed to be P1.8 billion. It was reduced to under P1 billion to save costs,” he added.

The President also mentioned that overloaded trucks were involved in the incident, stressing that these trucks should never have been on the bridge.

A week after the tragedy, the President inspected the site, accompanied by Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Manuel Bonoan and local officials.

He assured that the issue of identifying those responsible for the bridge’s design would be addressed.

ia/mnm