Cebu province gets P56 million for road project

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu provincial government will receive at least P56 million from the national government for the improvement, development and rehabilitation of various provincial roads.

The money will be shelled out as part of the implementation of the “Konkreto at Ayos na Lansangan at Daan Tungo sa Pangkalahatang Kaunlaran (KALSADA) project, in which Cebu was included as one of the 73 recipients out of 81 provinces in the country.

The Department of Budget and Management set aside P6.5 billion from this year’s P3-trillion national spending plan for the road rehabilitation project.

The funds will be directly downloaded to local government units that meet “good governance standards, social development benchmarks and established monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.”

The LGUs were also selected based on their compliance with the Department of Interior and Local Government’s Seal of Good Financial Housekeeping and submission to the DBM of their Local Public Financial Management Assessment Report.

Cebu Province was conferred the Seal of Good Financial Housekeeping last year.  The Provincial Information Office reported that the Capitol’s engineering office has identified the provincial road linking Barangay Dakit, Bogo City and Barangay, Nipa Cayaan Tabogon in northern Cebu as the recipient of the program.

A feasibility study of the Provincial Planning and Development Office showed that the Bogo-Tabogon beltway is among the busiest lanes in the province, serving as link to numerous businesses and tourist spots in the north, it added.

The province will also shell out at least P24 million as its counterpart of the project. This means that around P80 million would be poured in the Bogo-Tabogon road project.

According to the Official Gazette, the KALSADA project aims to increase the LGUs’ “ability to bring their road networks to sustainably maintainable condition through renovation or rehabilitation of strategic road networks linking national roads to areas of development such as agriculture, tourism, health and education.”

The KALSADA project is among the road projects received by Cebu Province from national government agencies.

The Regional Project Advisory Board (RPAB) earlier approved P377 million worth of farm-to-market (FMR) road projects funded under the Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP). (FREEMAN)