UNCONSCIONABLE: To Filipinos used to widespread corruption in government, an overprice of, say, 10 percent in the building of steel bridges in the countryside may be tolerable.

But for the French bridges intended for agrarian reform areas to be priced 2.5 times more than comparable steel bridges already being built by other foreign contractors is unconscionable. How will Malacanang justify such an overprice?

The new bridge-building spree is so massive that the Department of Public Works and Highways will not be able to handle it. The building schedule has had to be stretched to 2012, or two years after President Arroyo steps down.

The ambitious “Tulay ng Pangulo” program of Ms Arroyo will cost taxpayers a whopping P30 billion, yet she is not telling them the details of the French deal. (The foreign currency price tag is Euro 388,880,000.)

Filipinos already reeling from heavy taxes and soaring prices are entitled to at least know what hit them. They would also be interested to know who would get the usual 20-percent commission.

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OVERPRICE: The latest edition of the bridges program using a loan from the French government carries an average price of Euro 17,000 (P1,170,359) per linear meter of superstructure (before installation). The price does not include the pedestrian walk.

On-going bridge projects assisted by the British, Spanish and Austrian governments and handled by their contractors have an average cost of only Euro 6,900 (P475,030) per linear meter including the concrete road deck before installation.

The middleman and the media defenders of the French bridges say that their spans are the best for this poverty-stricken country because, being made of steel, they last long.

Even assuming they can last a century as claimed — although that is subject to proof — their price that is 2.5 times more than comparable steel spans of the other contractors is indefensible.

The less costly bridges of the competing foreign firms may look different, but they are also made of steel and are just as easy to erect on site.

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CRISIS P.R.: To lighten the burden of the overworked and cash-depleted DPWH, Malacanang has tapped the Department of Agrarian Reform to contribute 60 percent (Euro 240 million) of the Euro 400-million budget.

It is not clear how Malacanang will justify the use of DAR funds, but conceivably government apologists will say that bridges are needed to push agrarian reform and its benefits, or something like that. But that would be stretching it too far.

Actually what Malacanang and the propagandists of the middleman pushing the French project are doing is to send out PR (public relations) runners to stamp out brush fire breaking out in media and elsewhere.

Crisis PR is quite expensive, but 20 percent of P30 billion is a lot of money.

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STEALTH: One factor that adds to suspicion that the usual operator was cooking another mega-deal was the attendant secrecy despite avowals of transparency by the Arroyo administration.

While the DPWH and the DAR are supposed to be the main implementing agencies, sources said they have not participated in the detailed technical preparation.

In the DPWH, the papers – ready for approval – simply appeared reportedly in the office of Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane and an Executive Director with direct links to Malacanang but who did not consult the department’s design specialists.

In fact, the contract signed by Matiere S.A.S., the French company contracted to build the bridges, and the DPWH Secretary representing the Philippine government, was not notarized when initialed.

With that, there are no copies with a notary public that could leak out. But why all that secrecy?

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LAPU-LAPU REPORT: Meantime, friends coming home from Cebu over the weekend tell us that Mayor Arturo Radaza of Lapu-lapu City is very bullish about his turf as investors poured in close to P10 billion from January 2007 to the first quarter of 2008.

Radaza hosted last June 27 an “Investors Night” at the Mactan Shangri-la. Close to a hundred guests representing top investors were honored. Members of the diplomatic corps and the media also attended.

Big investors included the Gokongwei Group of Companies, Lucio Tan Group of Companies, Megaworld Properties and Sta Lucia Realty.

A recent study by the Asian Institute of Management and the Word Bank adjudged Lapu-Lapu as the second best city to start a business in, besting premier Metro Manila cities like Makati and Quezon City.

Last July 4, the Asian Institute of Management’s Policy Center named six metro areas as the most competitive cities for doing business in. On top were Davao, Lapu-lapu, Makati, Manila, Marikina and Quezon City.

This year’s survey covered 90 cities. The annual survey was launched in 1999 to encourage national competitiveness.

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TOURISM SPOT: Lapu-lapu is fast emerging as a tourism haven. Most of Cebu’s best hotels are there, such as Mactan Shangri-la, Waterfront Mactan and Plantation Bay.

Radaza is on his last term as mayor. When he first took office in 2001, his city’s revenues were around P200 million. Now they stand close to P700 million.

His wife, Pat Radaza is involved in livelihood projects helping Lapu-lapu’s folk with self-sustaining activities. Among beneficiaries are city jail inmates and wives of fishermen who are taught how to sew hand-made export-quality bedcovers and bags.

She is the president of the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines.