AS PART of its Covid-19 response, the Department of Public Works and Highways in the Cordillera Administrative Region (DPWH-CAR) recently constructed various isolation and quarantine facilities in four provinces.

Khadafy Tangol, DPWH–CAR regional director, explained the construction of isolation and quarantine facilities aims to address the management of coronavirus cases in the region.

“Lately, Secretary (Mark) Villar who is the construction czar has been assigned by President Rodrigo Duterte to construct isolation and quarantine facilities in the country and for Cordillera, we have identified and constructed said facilities in four areas in CAR,” Tangol said.

The facilities were constructed in the City of Baguio and the provinces of Apayao, Benguet and Kalinga.

“Since day 1 of the coronavirus, DPWH has been assigned to deliver support materials in the different local government units in the region through the use of the department’s equipments like dump trucks among others,” Tangol stated.

In 2020, DPWH was one of the several government agencies of government with reduced budget in support of the Covid response.

DPWH was allocated a P6940-billion budget by the national government, with P34 billion going to CAR.

The budget will be used for the maintenance and construction of national roads and bridges, rehabilitation works, new construction, flood controls and road slippage rehabilitation, among others.

Last year, DPWH-CAR erected 806 isolation and quarantine facilities in CAR worth P64,565,394.