Butuan flood control project one of DPWH's best

BUTUAN CITY — With minimal resources and manpower, Butuan’s flood control project, otherwise known as the Lower Agusan Development Project of the Cotabato-Agusan River Basin Development Program (LADP-CARDBP) Package IV, bested all other projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways in the country with a quality control performance rating of 93.76 percent.

This was affirmed by the Bureau of Research and Standards Office headed by Judy Sese, officer-in-charge of the Bureau Director who conducted the assessment rating in all Project Management Offices nationwide in terms of quality performance rating for all DPWH foreign assisted projects in the country.

Coming in close second to the Agusan flood control project was the Project Management Office of Caloocan, Malabon, Novaliches and Valenzuela (CAMANAVA) flood control project in Metro Manila, which garnered 90.9 performance rating.

The Project Management Office of the Pasig Floodway Project in Mangahan garnered the lowest quality performance rating, the Bureau of Research and Standards Office said.

Phillip Meñez, project director and head of Cluster C of the CARDBP-LADP, congratulated Package 1V project manager Rogelio Ang, Package IV project engineerAurelio Mendoza, and the project consultant, Nippon Koei Co., Ltd. headed by Takao Nakano.

Package IV of the Lower Agusan Development Project (LADP) is a P912-million foreign assisted Masao River Improvement project and the construction of the Urban Drainage System of Butuan City.

The project, if finished by April 2006, is expected to lessen flooding here. To date, the project is 81 percent completed.

The Cotabato-Agusan River Basin Development Project is one of the flagship infrastructure projects of the Arroyo administration and is aimed at providing better irrigation systems for water supply needs of the huge and fertile Agusan Valley whose rich agricultural land area extend to as far as Compostela in Davao and Cotabato provinces.