ILOILO City – Barely four days after the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Regional Office 6 carried out repair and asphalting works, potholes have resurfaced at the intersection beneath the Ungka Flyover in Barangay Ungka II, Pavia, Iloilo — raising fresh concerns over repair quality and long-term durability.
Photos taken by Panay News on Sunday afternoon, February 15, showed big visible potholes once again forming at the same intersection that was repaired on Wednesday night last week, February 11.
The latest damage comes despite DPWH-6’s recent intervention aimed at improving road safety in the area, where motorists have repeatedly complained about uneven pavement and road depressions that worsen during heavy rains.
In a video previously posted by DPWH-6, the agency showed personnel using a small backhoe to patch the affected portion of the intersection before applying a fresh layer of asphalt. The repair, according to the agency, was intended to address motorists’ complaints and enhance safety for vehicles passing under the flyover.
The resurfacing of potholes adds another chapter to the long and costly history of the four-lane, 453.7-meter Ungka Flyover, one of the most controversial infrastructure projects in Iloilo.
Construction of the Ungka Flyover began in January 2020 and it was opened to traffic in the first week of September 2022 — only to be shut down two weeks later after engineers detected vertical displacement.
Originally priced at P680 million, the project’s total cost ballooned following structural rectification works.
Phase 1 of the rehabilitation, amounting to P95 million, was awarded to Monolithic Construction & Concrete Products, Inc., while Phase 2 — covering jet grouting of the remaining flyover piers and installation of geofoam in unstable sections — cost P200 million and was handled by IBC, the same firm that built the flyover.
In total, government spending on the project reached approximately P990 million before the structure was reopened to full capacity in December 2024.
While DPWH-6 maintains that the latest repairs were meant to improve road safety, the quick return of potholes — even beneath a rehabilitated flyover — is expected to reignite public scrutiny over construction standards, material durability, and oversight of a project that has already cost taxpayers nearly a billion pesos./PN
