WE ALL KNOW THAT Eastern Samar, despite its rich natural resources, is one of the poorest provinces in this country.

What we do not know is that the efforts of this cute administration to alleviate poverty in the province are getting stonewalled by a congressman and the local office of the Department of Public Works and Highways, or DPWH.

You see, the Lola at the Palace has allotted P500 million this year for the repair and rehabilitation of the main highway in the province, which has been almost impassable for years now. Believe me, I have been there.

What happened to the P500-million road budget? Well, some bright guys at the DPWH thought it best to divide the project into several small components.

Thus, what should have been just one road project became 12 small packages, costing about P20 million each.

That way, with the contracts subdivided in small portions, the DPWH?s district office in Eastern Samar would implement the project?and not the DPWH national office.

The DPWH allows its district offices to implement projects worth up to P20 million each.

Yet the DPWH actually submitted to Congress last year the P500-million budget for only one road project in the province. Something funny must have happened on the way to the DPWH office.

It seems that one legislator twisted some arms at the DPWH to break down the project into several small components.

Actually, as part of the largesse system in Congress, the legislator could choose the contractors for the projects using his or her ?pork? allocation, as long as the project costs were ? well, ?small.?

Everybody in the construction business knows that DWPH district offices are under the control of legislators.

So there you have it! Mystery solved!

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NOW I HEARD that Public Works and Highways Secretary Vic Domingo discovered such a chop-chop modus operandi, as the DPWH district office requested for ?exemption? for the 12 mini road projects in the province, meaning, the district office would implement them.

According to our spies in the DPWH, the request for ?exemption? for the controversial road projects came from DPWH district engineer Ernesto Paderes.

It also bore the endorsement of Rep. Teodolo Coquilla of the lone district of Eastern Samar.

From what I heard, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. is also trying to withhold the release of even just a single centavo of the P500-million budget, because of the mystery surrounding the ?chop-chop? road project.

I just thought it was a good move. It seems that Andaya knows something else about the project. And this guy is tough when it comes to money.