Senator Raffy Tulfo asked the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to require contractors of infrastructure projects to secure liability insurance for accidental death or injury of its workers and motorists.

During the Senate Finance Subcommittee A public hearing on the DPWH 2023 budget, Tulfo said the amount of the coverage of the liability insurance for laborers and motorists should be at least P1 million per project.

This amount gets increased as the value of project also gets increased, he said.

Tulfo said there are many instances where laborers are injured while doing infrastructure projects, such as their hands are cut or their feet get pinned. Sometimes, motorists fall into canals because gaps on roads were not covered. These have also led to fatalities.

What hurts is that laborers and motorists are not covered by insurance, he pointed out.

Tulfo recalled an instance wherein he managed to oblige a contractor to shoulder the cost for their worker’s death while in duty, but to his dismay the contractor merely offered to pay P20,000.

Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan welcomed Tulfo’s suggestion, saying they would look into ways to incorporate a P1 million liability insurance to the current policy.

Tulfo also asked Bonoan to stop the current practice of sub-contracting infrastructure projects which often results to substandard roads that are prone to accidents.

In current sub-contracting practice, Tulfo said the principal contractor who won the bidding would simply transfer the implementation and construction of the project to a smaller contractor lacking financial and technical capability. The principal contractor would get a cut from the project price by only using his license, or in Tulfo’s term, “laway lang (by just talking)".

In some cases, Tulfo recalled, the sub-contractor would again transfer the project to another smaller sub-contractor. In effect, the budget available for the third contractor would be small and not enough to make quality projects.

Tulfo also asked Bonoan to ensure that no road projects would be started if there is no funding available yet as this causes major traffic and inconvenience to motorists, to which Bonoan answered in the affirmative.