Road project delayed due to lack of counterpart funds

COTABATO CITY – The five-year national road infrastructure program of Central Mindanao (Region XII) is being delayed by the inability of the National Government to allocate funds.

The project covers some 15 kilometers of national road development linking the region to the rest of southern Mindanao.

The five-year plan is part of the Arroyo administration’s six-year Medium Term Philippine Development Plan.

"We fear that our five-year development plan ending 2010 will not be achieved, and that economic progress of the region would be affected," said David L. Padlan, officer-in-charge of the planning division of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) regional office.

So far, the National Government has released only P56 million of the proposed budget of P192 million. The government’s inability to allocate the necesary funds curtails the provision of counterpart funds for officicial development assistance (ODA).

According to officials of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the development of infrastructure especially national highways is a major component of poverty alleviation.

It will lower production costs of moving farm products and manufactured goods. It will allow social services and the like to reach the rural folk, and open more opportunities to the rest of the provinces and cities in the region.

"It will also contribute to the improvement of peace and order, another issue that affects infrastructure and the economic growth," Padlan added.

Central Mindanao is composed of four provinces and five cities: South Cotabato, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and the cities of General Santos, Kidapawan, Koronadal, Cotabato and Tacurong.