City Engineering Office (CEO) head, Engr. Teodoro Estoque admitted that there was indeed lack of feedback coming from his office to a Tagbilaran resident/complainant regarding the issue of the damage caused by the excavation of PLDT.
Estoque made the statement in a follow-up telephone interview on Aug 3, 2022 after conducting a probe regarding the inability of the said office to provide feedback on its action taken regarding the accidental damage caused by the excavation of the telecoms company PLDT and provide such information to the Tagbilaran resident/complainant.
The city engineer said that he assigned a certain Engr. Joseph Balatero to check on the report logged by The Bohol Tribune’s columnist and section editor Gloria Araneta on July 28, 2022 where the water supply was halted after the PLDT allegedly damaged water pipes.
The water supply was suspended because of the alleged damage of the water pipe of Bohol Water Utilities Inc. (BWUI), reports say.
City Engr. Estoque said that after the probe, he was told that Balatero went to the site and saw indeed that the PLDT excavation damaged the water pipe of BWUI.
The City Engineer explained further that his office’s action is limited to the coordination between BWUI and PLDT and Balaterio reportedly coordinated with the 2 companies to fix the problem.
However, Estoque said that Balatero failed to inform Estoque of his action, thus leading to the inability of the office to provide feedback to Araneta regarding the issue, whether or not it was resolved.
Estoque said that he is looking at issuing a warning to Balatero so that this incident of failure to provide feedback shall not happen again.
Moreover, the City Engineer is also inclined to suspend PLDT’s excavation permit if the latter continues to cause damage of the water pipes to the detriment of the water consumers.
The issue stems from PLDT allegedly causing damage to the water pipe of BWUI on July 28, 2022 and the matter was reported by Araneta to the CEO.
However, there was no feedback provided by the CEO to Araneta so the latter, due to the urgency of the matter, decided to get a private plumber to fix the problem.
The decision came after determining that there is no issue with the BWUI and later realized that her water meter was shut down and she saw water oozing after turning the water meter valve on, which led to a conclusion that there was damage caused to the water pipes.
Moreover, an employee of BWUI on July 28, 2022 told Araneta that there was nothing wrong with her water connection.
Araneta decided to look for a private plumber to fix the problem after she was unable to get some feedback from the CEO.
Likewise, Araneta was waiting for a feedback from Estoque as she (Araneta) was informed that there is nothing wrong with the water connection.
Araneta doubts there was action taken regarding her plight because she never heard any feedback after her complaint.
The sad part is that Araneta’s home suffered another zero water pressure on Aug. 1, 2022 when another incident of damage on the water pipe allegedly took place.
The latest incident led to the shut down of 3 pumping units causing no water service to barangays Dampas, Poblacion 1, 2, 3.