$7M released for road rehabilitation project

TACLOBAN CITY – The United States government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) released $7 million grant for the road rehabilitation in Samar and Eastern Samar in October.

The $7-million fund is part of the $214.44 million grant from the MCC for the Samar National Road Development Project (SNRDP).

The project aims to rehabilitate the 222-kilometer road connecting Samar and Eastern Samar provinces, and improve road condition from capital city of Borongan to a tourist destination in Guiuan. 

Ma. Victoria Añonuevo, Millenium Challenge Account Philippines (MCA-P) managing director, said the fund was spent for designs before the bidding of two of the four contract packages of the SNRDP.

“We have to finish the project on May 2016 by hook or by crook. We bid out last week another package. Towards the end of the month, we will bid out other packages,” Añonuevo said.

Contractors for packages one and three of the SRNDP have already mobilized their equipment.

Contract package one, which was put on the auction block in July, was awarded to the consortium of DM Consunji Inc. and CM Panco Construction Inc. It covers a 16.3-kilometer road in Paranas, Samar and the replacement of Tabucan Bridge.

Contract package three, bid out in June, was awarded to the consortium of Leyte-based MAC Builders and Chinese company Qingjian Group Co., Ltd. It covers 64.58 kilometers and the replacement of six bridges from the town boundary of San Julian and Sulat to the Balangkayan and Llorente municipal boundary in Eastern Samar.

Bidding for contract packages two and four will be done from October to November, said MCA-P.
 
Matthew Bohn, MCC country director, claimed the Philippine projects are one of the most successful compact projects of the MCC in 22 countries worldwide.

“We are on schedule and we already seen some results from the compact. I am proud to see the way this money being used to reduce poverty in the Philippines,” Bohn said. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)