The decision of the provincial government of Aklan to engage the STL Panay Resources LTD, in dredging the Aklan River downstream the Kalibo-Numancia bridge to its mouth at north towards the Sibuyan Sea, highlights a very big question to the minds of our people.

What happened to the P100 million dredging project of the DPWH implemented by its regional office in Iloilo City in the aftermath of the 2008 Typhoon Frank in the same area of the river?

Implementation of the DPWH dredging project was considerably delayed even after Typhoon Frank and therefore the whole appropriations for the said project was consummated and the dredging deemed completed in between 2012 and 2011.

This proposed dredging project of the provincial government with a private firm will only indicate less or nothing had happened to mitigate the flooding of the capital town of Kalibo and the neighboring towns of Numancia and other towns by the Aklan River. Abnormally heavy rainfall brought by Tropical Depression Quinta proved that the P100 million dredging project at the Aklan River in the aftermath of Typhoon Frank was worthless in just a matter of a couple or more years.

The draft agreement between the STL Panay Resources LTD and the provincial government for the dredging project shall entail no cost on the part of the LGU-province. The provincial government shall be compensated P5 per cubic meter of dredged materials commercialized by the private party.

Critics said the arrangement is a sell-out at P5 per cubic meter. STL Panay Resources is expected to dredge about 15 million cubic meters, or, P75 million income for the province without investing resources.

Of course, implementers of a dredging project will always conveniently reason out that siltations and sandbar formations will always return to the dredged area after completion of the dredging due to natural phenomenon in a river system.

Dredging projects can always become a lucrative business for dredging contractors with less accurate monitoring and accounting funds of disbursed by government agency-implementor.

No one can also be held accountable for siltations and sand bar formations to develop in the dredged area even in the immediate aftermath of a dredging project completion.*