Dagupan mayor threatens to sue DPWH over road project

DAGUPAN CITY — Mayor Benjamin Lim has threatened to sue the regional office of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) if it does not follow the original plan for the ongoing construction of a P302.7-million diversion road here.

In a dialogue with DPWH officials here last Thursday, Lim warned, "We will bring this to court and we will criticize you openly and intensively on why you are wasting people’s money."

The Pantal-Dawel-Lucao diversion road project, funded with a loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, has four phases, with the first phase, costing P75 million, already finished.

The three other phases, costing P35.75 million, P50 million and P22 million, respectively, are ongoing. As of Sept. 11, the project was 54.56 percent complete.

DPWH officials, however, said they still need an additional P61,314,237.14 to complete the entire project.

The diversion road is intended to dramatically reduce the heavy volume of vehicular traffic on the city’s main thoroughfares.

During the dialogue, the city’s executive assistant, Teddy Villamil Jr., presented a GIS (geographic information system) image of the entire city, which a German company donated to Lim.

The satellite image, which can be zoomed in to show housing units, can be used to accurately measure any given road or parcel of land.

With it, Villamil compared the DPWH plan and the city’s original proposal to link the diversion road with the De Venecia Highway to really make it a circumferential road.

The comparison showed that if Phase 2 of the diversion road directly exits through the De Venecia Highway via a DENR property, the road’s estimated length would be 800 meters.

On the other hand, if it exits via the NELAR subdivision, the length would be 650 meters. The length would reach 2,950 meters if the diversion road would be extended to Bautista Road to connect to the De Venecia Highway.

Civil works for the 800-meter road length would cost P35.2 million compared to P26.5 million for the 650-meter road, and P65.12 million for a length of 1,480 meters, Villamil said.

He said the DPWH’s final alignment of linking the diversion road to the De Venecia Highway encircling Bautista Road would require road widening in the area, thus affecting several residents.

But since the DPWH’s embankment work is nearing completion, Lim proposed a "win-win" solution by carrying out the original plan of linking up the diversion road to the De Venecia Highway and at the same time, continuing the DPWH’s extended embankment linking up to the Arco-Bautista Road without the need for any costly road widening.

"Let us open our eyes and consider our suggestion. This is a good opportunity for the national and local governments to work together. This is not an act for the local government to contradict the national government. We still believe that for the right reason, we should sit down and do the right thing," he said.

Lim added: "Please consider this recommendation made by the city because it would not preclude us from filing the proper cases in court if necessary."

Eugenio Pipo, DPWH assistant regional director, said he would relay Lim’s proposal to his superiors for evaluation.

"In our level, we support the proposal of the city government. However, we have to (bring) this to (our) higher-ups for them to conduct a re-evaluation or review of the already approved plan so the necessary revision or amendment could be done before the project is completed," Pipo said.

The project involves a two-lane, 4.98-kilometer highway and a segment of the city’s circumferential road, which will be connected to the De Venecia Highway and Calasiao diversion road, crossing the Dagupan-Urdaneta Road, thus providing motorists alternative routes.

It is expected to carry about 6,500 vehicles of the estimated 38,000 vehicles using the Dagupan-Urdaneta Road daily.