"Heads must roll".

This was the stern statement issued by Senator Ramon "Bong" Revila following the collapse of the P1.2-billion Cabagan-Santa Maria Bridge in Isabela on Thursday night, Feb. 27.

Revilla, who chairs the Senate Committee on Public Works, said that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) should immediately release the result of their investigation.

"Dapat ma-blacklist ang contractor niyan at parusahan, at dapat ayusin nila ang tulay without any additional cost to the people (The contractor should be blacklisted and punished, and they must repair the bridge at no additional cost to the public)," he said. 

"Dapat din na panagutan ito ng DPWH, specifically ng kanilang mga engineers na in charge dun sa project (The DPWH, specifically their engineers in charge of the project, should also be held accountable for this)," he added.

Six persons were reportedly injured when a portion of the Cabagan-Santa Maria Bridge in Barangay Casibarag Norte, Cabagan, Isabela, collapsed on Thursday night.

A statement from the DPWH-Region 2 said the third span from Cabagan side with a length of 60 meters collapsed when a dump truck carrying boulders with a calculated approximate gross vehicle weight of around 102 tons passed.

Revilla said that DPWH should not allow incidents like this to happen, wherein after seven years of public funding, the bridge is already falling apart just two months after it was opened.

"Billions of funds are spent on public infrastructure and the minimum requirement should be structural integrity. Hindi maaari ang trabahong basta na, at ang bagsak sa kaledad na kahahantungan ng mga pampublikong imprastraktura. (Work cannot just be done haphazardly, and result to a decline in the quality of public infrastructure)," he added.