Partido Reporma standard-bearer Senator Panfilo ‘Ping’ M. Lacson has expressed his dissatisfaction at the quality of nationals roads he and his team had to navigate on their way to Bicolandia this week after a two-day visit to the Quezon province recently.

In a press conference held at the Daet, Camarines Norte provincial capitol, Lacson said he wants to hold the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) accountable over the broken road segments along Maharlika Highway, which they passed from Lucena City enroute to Camarines Norte.

“Nadaanan nga natin, ano, all the way from Quezon, from Lucena all the way here, may mga segment ng kalsada—at ito, alam niyo naman ito anecdotal na ‘yan pagdating sa Bicol, ‘di ba—‘yung stretch na ‘yan, ‘yan ‘yung walang katapusang repairs (We went through that all the way from Quezon, from Lucena all the way here, there are segments of roads—and you know, this is anecdotal when it comes to the Bicol region, right—that stretch of highway is undergoing endless repairs),’’ Lacson told reporters.

Should he get elected as the 17th president of the Republic, Lacson said he would conduct a post-construction audit of the various road projects implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and its contractors to determine if the materials used were substandard and go after whoever were short-changing Filipino taxpayers.

“Kung meron lang ganoon, siyempre, ‘yung mga kontratista, ‘yung DPWH, ‘yung mga implementing agencies will be on their toes at sisiguraduhin nila na hindi substandard ‘yung kanilang mga gagamiting materyales (If only we have that {audit system}. of course, these contractors, the DPWH, the implementing agencies will be on their toes and they will ensure the materials they are using are not substandard),’’ he stressed.

“So, wala tayong ganoon [So, we don’t have that). At wala talagang nakakasuhan, walang nakukulong ‘yung six months after na magawa ‘yung kalsada ay sira na (And no one gets charged, no one gets jailed, when six months later after the road was constructed, it is already broken).

Parang tayo hanggang mura na lang tayo ‘pag nalulubak ‘yung ating sasakyan (The only thing we can do is utter profanities whenever our vehicles pass through uneven roads),’’ he added.

Lacson said he always had issues against the DPWH, which often requests a large amount of money from the government every budget deliberation for the preventive maintenance of several national and local road construction projects yet it keeps falling short of expectations.

‘’After one segment has been repaired, another one is about to be repaired, and so forth and so on. It’s endless... So, there must really be someone that we can hold accountable. Until no one is assuming the responsibility, it will just keep repeating, a vicious cycle,’’ he added.

Lacson, running mate Senate President Vicente ‘’Tito’’ C. Sotto III, and some of their senatorial candidates held campaign sorties in Camarines Norte and Sorsogon in the Bicol region after wrapping up their two-day activities in Lucena City and Candelaria, Quezon earlier this week.