THE Public Works Department has already reorganized to comply with a World Bank demand that it do so if it wants to receive more financing for its road-building program, an official said yesterday.

?Actually, there is already a new program management office for [the National Roads Improvement and Management Program] headed by Undersecretary Romeo Momo,? Public Works Undersecretary Ramon Aquino said.

?The organization is a new setup,? he said.

The World Bank on Sunday said it wanted a ?substantive reorganization? of the Public Works Department as a precondition for its continued lending to the last stage of its roads program.

The reorganization is one of the criteria to be applied in the second stage of the road-building program to trigger fund releases for the third stage, according to a 150-page project appraisal report that the Bank posted on its Web site.

The Bank made the demand following its claims of collusion among bidders for the road-building project.

Aquino made his statement even as senators said First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, instead of testifying before the chamber, could execute a deposition on his alleged role in the rigging of the bidding for the road projects.

?If he could not appear, then it would probably be better if [the committee on foreign affairs] just got his deposition,? Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile told reporters.

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, who had broached the deposition, asked Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo to lodge a formal protest with the World Bank?s country director over the Bank?s refusal to give a copy of its report on the alleged rigging of the road projects in the Philippines.

?The World Bank?s refusal to provide the referral report in effect throws our country into a state of needless speculation,? Santiago said.

Aquino said Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. would supervise the project management office. The agency?s Executive Committee would make recommendations to Ebdane on policies and institutional reforms, he said.

In a statement, Ebdane said his agency had instituted project-specific measures intended to deter collusion and prevent further opportunities for corruption in its road-building projects.

He said his department would also allow the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and Road Watch, a non-government organization, to check on the World Bank-funded projects. Joel E. Zurbano with Fel V. Maragay