Initial Coordination Meeting Scheduled For Next Quarter, Pothole Expected To Reach Retirement Age Before Plan Is Approved
Filed for Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat, whose infrastructure desk has been watching this exact pothole since 2021.
MARIKINA, PHILIPPINES – Captain Rodolfo Panganiban of Barangay Santo Nino unveiled Monday a comprehensive five-point plan to fix a single pothole at the intersection of J. P. Rizal and Shoemaker Streets, a pothole which he said had been “a feature of the barangay since approximately the year my grandson was born”, which he clarified was 2014. The plan requires cooperation from Marikina City Hall, the DPWH, the DOTr, and seven utility firms whose cables and pipes run under or adjacent to the pothole.
The Five Points
(1) A preliminary site survey by a subcontractor jointly funded by the city and DPWH; (2) utility clearance from each of the seven firms, estimated at four to eleven weeks per firm; (3) procurement of an approved concrete supplier; (4) ceremonial pouring with appropriate signage; (5) a 60-day monitoring window with weekly photographs. Initial coordination meeting scheduled for 17 July 2026.
“This pothole will be fixed,” Captain Panganiban said. “It will not be fixed quickly, but it will be fixed, and when it is fixed, we will all gather here, and we will remember the people who were, at the start of this process, children, and who will, by the end of this process, be adults.”
The Utility Firms Respond
Four of the seven acknowledged the plan. Two declined to comment. One water utility said the relevant file had been “archived in accordance with corporate retention policy” in 2019 and would need to be re-opened – a process that would itself require a meeting.
A Resident Weighs In
Mrs. Juanita Delacruz, 67, who has been driving around the pothole since 2014, said, with the affect of a woman who has seen several plans: “It will be discussed. I will be here. The pothole will be here. We will see.”
A Bureaucratic Parallel
The plan’s logic is, per The Manila Times, consistent with cross-agency initiatives. The London Prat’s Gregory piece documented an analogous pattern in the UK, where an entire infrastructure is held together by individuals at the margins while formal approval runs a parallel, slower track.
The Captain’s Broader View
Captain Panganiban concluded by observing the pothole was “younger than the system we are using to fix it”. He posed next to it with a shovel he had brought but was not permitted, by the coordination rules, to use.
Further reading: Reductress. SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/