DPWH teams in Cordillera to evaluate SONA projects

BONTOC, Mountain Province – Several technical teams were dispatched by the Department of Public Works and Highways central office in the Cordillera to check implementation of the P5.2 billion State of the Nation Address (SONA) projects of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo if they were properly done and will be able to complete the infrastructure projects by the end of this year.

The periodic inspection of the SONA projects is in accordance to orders of the President to Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. for all SONA projects in the region to be completed by December so she could inaugurate these when she spends her Yuletide break in Baguio City.

Engineer Roy Manao, regional director of the Department of Public Works and Highways , said technical teams from the quality control and materials testing units of the Bureau of Research Standards and Bureau of Construction are now doing routine inspection in all the on-going projects along the Mount Data to Bontoc and Bontoc to Banaue sections of the Halsema highway and the whole stretch of the Bontoc-Tabuk-Tuguegarao road to monitor the progress of the various projects.

According to him, monitoring activities by different technical teams from various agencies, including the Commission on Audit, is an indication on how transparent the agency is in the implementation of the projects, especially that they are trying to beat the deadline prescribed by President Arroyo.

The technical teams will be immediately submitting their findings and recommendations to the DPWH-CAR and project implementers so that they could do corrective measures in some minor defects of their respective projects.

While admitting that there are some defects of the different infrastructure projects being prosecuted by the various contractors, Manao claimed such defects have already been corrected because of the vigilance of the project engineers and the commuting public who brought to their attention their observations on how the projects are being done.

Initially, some of the monitoring teams found out contractors along the Bontoc-Tabuk-Tuguegarao road are having a difficult time advancing their projects in areas covered by road-right-of-way claims of some residents because they do not want their properties to be taken for the widening of the narrow portions of the road.

However, the DPWH-Car official asserted all efforts are being exerted by both government and private sectors in the region to convince affected residents to give a portion of their properties traversed by the major road networks since it will redown to better economic activities, especially in far flung areas of Mountain Province, Ifugao and Kalinga, the major sites of the SONA projects.

The Regional Development Council in the Cordillera also created a road-right-of-way task force through its infrastructure monitoring and advisory group to help the concerned government agencies in the negotiations with the affected land owners in the three provinces so that they will not unjustly delay the implementation of the flagship projects since they will be paid based on existing rates. -- Dexter A. See