President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. visited the collapsed Cabagan-Sta. Maria bridge in Isabela province on Thursday, accompanied by Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Manuel Bonoan and other government officials.

In a media interview, Marcos said the bridge collapsed due to a design flaw.

“The bottom line is.. it’s design flaw, it is a design flaw. The design is wrong. The history of this project, its funding was supposed to be… its project cost was P1.8 billion, so it was reduced to under P1 billion to make it cheaper. It was fixed, the detailed design was made [but] design is really weak,” he said.

Marcos explained that the bridge was not properly supported by the arch and cable attached.

“If cable was used, it shouldn't give out. Then the anchoring of the support, It should be at the top, all the way up for -- all the way up for the entire arch... This is what supports it... That's the steel you see and then the cement, that's the only thing that supports the entire bridge,” he said pointing out on the collapsed bridge,” he said.

Marcos lamented that the original budget for the bridge was P900 million, which ballooned to P1.2 billion due to retrofitting.

Meanwhile, the Chief Executive said the construction was done “by the book.” However, he noted that the specification was wrong.

He also pointed out that the weight capacity of the bridge, which had 44 tons of acceptable load, was exceeded by trucks that passed through, which weighed over 100 tons.

‘Fix the problem, not the blame’

Marcos stressed that the government will find out who is responsible but will prioritize the repair of the bridge first.

"I always have a saying, fix the problem not the blame. Let’s fix the problem first. Believe me, we will find out who is responsible,” he said. “Who is responsible is basically who made the design ‘cause their design was poor. Look what happened. And then also, those trucks should never have been on the bridge.”

Marcos said that the government has no choice but to rebuild the bridge.

“Now, we're going back again. We're going to spend a lot again. We're going to replace the supports. It's like we've built a new bridge again,” he said.

Earlier, Malacañang Palace said it will investigate the incident further to find out who is responsible and what other factors may have contributed to the accident.