DPWH hires workers for road maintenance

More than 500 newly hired laborers in Central Visayas will begin the maintenance job on all national roads supervised by the Department of Public Works and Highways for the region.

Cebu 2nd Engineering District head, Engr. Daisy Toledo said, all district offices nationwide were directed by Undersecretary for Maintenance and Operations Salvador Pleyto III to simultaneously launch the DPWH-led Job Creation Program of the government this Monday.

Toledo said one laborer is hired to maintain 3.5 kilometer of the road project.

For the Cebu 2nd engineering district covering Talisay City and the first district municipalities of Minglanilla, Naga, San Fernando, Carcar and Sibonga, a total of 35 laborers are hired to maintain the 118 kilometer national roads.

Toledo also said that the only qualifications required from these laborers are good health and should be aged 18 to 50.

The laborers will be working by batch in four months and will be paid P231 a day.

Expected budget for salaries for every batch for the whole region will reach around P12 million.

Road maintenance works include vegetation control, manual ditch cleaning, clearing of obstruction, cleaning of culverts and manholes, manual patching of shoulders as well as sidewalk and gutter cleaning.

Toledo learned from DPWH office director Robert Lala that for the entire region, there will be 560 laborers to be hired for each batch covering 1,960 kilometers of national roads of the four provinces of Cebu, Bohol, Oriental Negros and Siquijor.

There are 898.142 kilometers of national roads in the province of Cebu alone. Cebu 4th Engineering District has 243.167 kilometers, the 3rd Engineering District covers 169.10 kilometers, while Cebu 1st Engineering District has 122.576 kilometers of national roads. - Ferliza C. Contratista