Scholars describe it as “chaordic,” which literally means the co-existence of “chaos” and “order,” and the fallen engineering landmark called the Cabagan-Sta. Maria Bridge is a classic example.

Prior to the President’s on-site inspection as well as his (un)authoritative dissertation on the cause of its collapse, the House of Representatives placed the blame on corruption involving the private contractors and government engineers from the Department of Public Works and Highways.

The Senate echoed the House, pointing out that such calamities had “reached an alarming level” and “heads must roll.” Describing the bridge collapse as an “infrastructure failure” where rigorous safety standards were not followed, former senator Ping Lacson said someone must be held accountable and be jailed for endangering life, limb, and property.

But would not congressional inquiry or Senate resolution to determine accountability, check corruption and blacklist the project proponents be an exercise in futility?

It’s a total waste of time to place every emerging problem under a microscope as if the clear evidence of the proximate cause could escape notice. There was the dump truck that carried boulders reportedly weighing 102 tons thereby exceeding the 44-ton freight limit the bridge can take. As FM Jr. himself theorized, the combined weight of over 200 tons of the two loaded trucks that convoyed over the bridge would not make anyone wonder why the span fell.

Up to now, the government has failed to institutionalize an automatic mechanism to help casualties of such accidents in terms of free hospitalization, remuneration, and indemnification as may be warranted.

Why is that?

The government performs either of two roles or both, as a guardian or as a spender. It’s sad to believe that all the government has concerned itself with is the cost of the bridge collapse. How about the people who were on the bridge when it fell who have no money for their hospitalization and the economic losses they are suffering?

Rather than initiating congressional or Senate inquiries to interrogate persons, contractors and public officials likely responsible or otherwise remiss in their duties, crafting legislative measures that would set exact standards in the realm of transportation and logistics must take precedence.

There must be guidelines akin to US federal and state regulations. This would simply require the Department of Transportation to set standards and guidelines uniformly across the country. When was the last time we had a so-called “bridge formula,” if at all?

It’s obvious that the 102-ton load on the truck that was double the maximum violated the freight weight limit with impunity. If the 990-meter long bridge to join two towns and boost economic growth cost the government a little over a billion pesos, one wonders into whose hands the epic “insertions” (euphemism for pork barrel) in the 2025 national budget to the tune of P347 billion (Drilon) will fall?

With the President saying that the collapse was a design flaw (“poor, wrong, weak”), while the construction was good and the contractor followed the plan per specifications, doesn’t that amount to granting a waiver from responsibility to whoever got the contract?