Gov't earmarks P643 M for CAR rehab projects

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY— The national government has earmarked P643 million for the Cordillera Administrative Region as its share from the Post “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” Short-Term Infrastructure Rehabilitation Project Fund (POPSTIRPF) for rehabilitation of areas hard hit by the typhoons.

Upon the endorsement of the Regional Development Council and Department of Public Works and Highways in the Cordillera, the POPSTIRPF for the region will be released in three tranches.

Engineer Edilberto Carabbacan, regional DPWH director, said an initial amount of P290 million was set to be released anytime for rehabilitation of roads and bridges.

According to Carabbacan, the second tranche is said to be P66 million to be utilized for various restoration works of flood control projects damaged by the typhoons.

Carabbacan added the third tranche of fund release amounting to P288 million will be utilized to bankroll the implementation of unfinished projects on roads and bridges which were not covered by the earlier released funds.

However, the DPWH-Cordillera will not have any hand in the implementation of the multi-million-peso projects considering that the same will be implemented by the agency’s central office in accordance to the earlier directive of national officials for transparency and accountability in bidding and implementation of vital infrastructure projects.

The RDC-Cordillera endorsed numerous requests from concerned national government agencies and local governments for funding requests from the national government so damaged infrastructure projects will be rehabilitated.

Considering that the roads, bridges, and flood control projects damaged by typhoons “Pepeng” and “Ondoy” were aggravated by the onslaught of super typhoon “Juan” last October, the earlier allocated funds for infrastructure projects were no longer enough to complete the projects, thus, the DPWH-Cordillera submitted additional estimates and programs of work to complete work middle of next year in time for the rainy season.

Based on initial estimates, Cordillera suffered a total of P1.3 billion worth of damage to infrastructure and agriculture due to the onslaught of “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” last year.

But the national government was only able to release P496 million to initially start the rehabilitation works before the May 10 elections which greatly affected completion of programmed works considering the implementation of the election ban.