DOT allocates P1.2 billion for roadwork projects in CV

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Tourism (DOT) has allotted for Central Visayas over 10 percent of the total national budget for countrywide infrastructural development in a special convergence program with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. has revealed in an earlier interview that the government last year approved P12 billion worth of funds for tourism infrastructure alone, aimed at intensifying the country’s momentum in tourism growth.

In a document forwarded by DOT 7 to The FREEMAN, a total of P1,203,762,600 worth of roadwork plans are being undertaken to benefit specific districts in three of the four provinces within the region, namely Cebu, Bohol and Negros Oriental.

The document, which presented the projects with their corresponding amounts, majorly classified the items according to whether they appropriately belonged to the regional director’s or the district engineer’s level of authority of implementation.

DOT 7 staff Judilyn Quiachon, however, said they could not provide the actual status of these projects as of press time since they still have to confer with their counterparts from the DPWH.

Nevertheless, she assured that these projects have already been bid out as the election ban precluding government agencies to auction off infrastructural projects is already set to take effect next week.

In Cebu, two projects are being (or will be) carried out under this appropriation, including the road widening of Mactan circumferential road in the 6th district and the widening of M. Velez Street side of the Provincial Capitol Building.

The said projects have been allotted P113,830,000 and P12,840,000, respectively.

Meanwhile, the rehabilitation of Panglao Island circumferential road which was given a budget of P150 million and the construction/improvement of Concepcion, Danao-Buenavista, Carmen road, costing P130 million, were two of the most notable projects slated in Bohol.

In Negros Oriental, concreting and upgrading of roads leading to several of the province’s tourism hotspots have been assigned a budget totaling P99 million. /JOB (FREEMAN)