Rama wants concreting projects to start soon

CEBU, Philippines - Mayor Michael Rama has ordered City Engineer Kenneth Carmelita Enriquez to speed up the preparation of the Programs of Works and Estimates (POWE) for the road-concreting projects of all mountain barangays and to complete them not later than 15 days from last Tuesday.

Rama made the order during a meeting with barangay captains of all mountain barangays wherein Enriquez was also present.

He said he wants the P100 million-worth road-concreting projects subjected to bidding this month so that construction can begin by April or May.

Assistant City Engineer June Nadine Sison explained that each of the 31 mountain barangays of the city has been allocated with P3.2 million-worth of road concreting projects in its respective territorial areas.

“Paninguhaon g’yud namo nga matuman ang mando sa mayor kay gusto na man g’yud niya nga kasugdan dayon ang project,” Sison said.

The City Council approved the proposed P100 million budget for the concreting of roads of all mountain barangays, but because the budget is not enough to cover all the roads, barangay captains have been advised to identify the roads they want to be prioritized.

DEPW personnel will make the necessary programs of works and estimates once the barangay captains identify the roads to be prioritized.

City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete said Rama wants to prioritize the roads in the mountain barangays to make it easy for mountain folk to bring their goods to the markets in the city proper.

Meanwhile, the city government is set to conduct a re-survey of U. Alviola Street from the corner of T. Padilla Street to General Maxilom Avenue in order to re-establish the planned restoration of 10-meter width roads.

In yesterday’s meeting with officials of barangay Tejero, Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP) chief Collin Rosell said they have already assigned a technical working group that would re-survey the area for the final plan and implementation of the road widening.

Last July, a fire hit Tejero and left some 190 families or 1,200 individuals homeless.

It took firefighters at least two hours to put out the flames because fire trucks had a hard time getting to the fire scene due to the narrow road.— (FREEMAN)