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Monday, August 25, 2008
GMA: Speed up bridge project
By Katrina A. Balmaceda
CEBU CITY -- President Gloria Arroyo again prodded the public works department to begin building an approved bridge project in Mandaue City that will connect Canduman and Cabancalan, when she visited its site Sunday.
But with bidding still to be done, Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane said work on the 40-meter bridge is expected to begin in November yet.
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The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) still has to reevaluate its initial budget of P48 million, though, to factor in an increase in oil prices. The planned bridge and four related projects are expected to cost at least P100 million, which a technical working team has yet to review.
Apart from infrastructure projects, mangoes and a foreign peace advocate brought President Arroyo to Cebu, where she stayed overnight.
These are aside from the inauguration of the new Sacred Heart School-Jesuit (SHS-J) campus in Barangay Canduman, Mandaue City.
After a quick brunch at the SHS-J, she visited the site of a proposed bridge connecting Canduman and Barangay Cabancalan in Mandaue.
“Gawin agad (Do this now),” Ebdane quoted the President as telling him.
Arroyo promised Mandauehanons the bridge in October last year by including it in the 2008 national budget.
In a visit to Cebu last month, she ordered construction to start “immediately.”
But Ebdane told reporters that building the 40-meter bridge will begin in November yet, “if all goes according to plan.”
Bidding soon
In particular, he said, he needs the local government’s help in acquiring the road right-of-way.
Arroyo ordered Ebdane to publish the notice of bidding by tomorrow, saying the DPWH actually has an outstanding notice of cash allocation (NCA).
Ebdane identified November as target date because the DPWH has yet to request the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for a special allocation release order (Saro).
The Saro is needed before the DBM can issue the NCA and release the funds for the bridge.
Ebdane said a technical working team is also reevaluating the cost, as increasing oil prices have jacked up the prices of construction materials.
The team, he said, is composed of DPWH, DBM and National Economic Development and Authority (Neda) representatives.
Aside from the bridge, Mandaue City also proposed four more major road projects, including the rehabilitation of the barangay road going through Kalderohan, Tabok, Tingub, Pagsa-bungan and Canduman, with work on drainage facilities, worth P20 million.
Exporter
The other road projects, each costing P10 million, are improvements of the Casili-Tawason to Canduman road and the road connecting Riverside and Angelicum Garden of Angels and Canduman.
Road widening and asphalting, still in Canduman, requires P12 million more.
Total cost is P100 million for the five projects, which Ebdane said are all under reevaluation by the technical working team.
After visiting the proposed bridge site, Arroyo then toured the 10-hectare Profoods Inc. manufacturing plant around noon.
She capped the afternoon off by awarding a representative of Brunei for advocating peace in southern Philippines.
Presidential Management Staff Chief Cerge Remonde said Arroyo chose to visit Profoods “to pay tribute to outstanding exporters.”
Profoods is among the country’s biggest exporters of fruit juice and other products derived from mangoes.
Key role
Company production manager James Uy said that President Arroyo promised to help the mango industry through financing and by aiding farmers, particularly by providing soil fertilizers.
In their conversion, he remarked that the demand from other countries cannot be met by Philippine mango growers.
Later in the afternoon, Arroyo conferred the Order of Sikatuna with the Rank of Grand Cross to Brunei deputy minister of defense Pehin Yasmin.
The citation gave credence to Yasmin’s efforts in brokering peace in Mindanao, particularly “for his key role and sustained active involvement in leading the international monitoring team.”
Armed Forces Chief Hermogenes Esperon witnessed the awarding.
Arroyo leaves Cebu for Iloilo Monday. (KAB of Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Pampanga. (August 25, 2008 issue)
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