FINISH all road works in Baguio City as soon as possible.
This was the order given by an upset Mayor Mauricio Domogan in his weekly press forum enjoining all contractors of road construction projects in the Summer Capital to fast track their works.
He also called the attention of the Department of Public Works and Highways and District Engineering Office to monitor the projects.
Domogan has gone berserk taking note of inefficient service rendered by some contractors in-charge of road works not only in the Central Business District but also along major entry and exit points in the city.
"There is a serious problem that we are experiencing due to the ineffective implementation of road construction and rehabilitation projects," he said.
He shared he had a meeting with the District Engineering Office to discuss the issues, concerns and sentiments of the public brought to Domogan.
Sympathizing with the public experiencing traffic due to the road works, Domogan said that there seemed to be slow and ineffective implementation of the projects.
He was told the reasons for this are the lack of manpower, equipment and simultaneous works in different areas of contractors.
Domogan was not pleased with the reasons saying DPWH could have prevented the problem if they awarded the projects to contractors that have proven good performance in the implementation of projects.
"DPWH should only bid these kind of projects and award them to contractors who have already proven performance," he stressed.
Domogan noted some of the commonly used roads by tourists such as the Marcos Highway and Asin Road have been recently clogged with traffic.
He added while he takes criticisms well, he is already getting tired of hearing comments against the City Government, especially those politicized ones, when in fact the projects are national projects and not by the City.
Even the business and tourism sector have coordinated with the chief executive expressing sentiments with the slow implementation of the road projects resulting to traffic, tourist arrivals and local economy are also being affected.
Domogan humbly empathized with the sentiments of his constituents iterating the agreements made last March by involved parties such as the contractors, the District Engineering Office and also the Traffic and Transportation Management Committee.
These agreements are the coordination of all projects to the City Government; the display of proper signages bearing the name of the contractor, the fund for the project, the timetable and other necessary information; the designation of flagmen on road construction areas; and continuous information dissemination.
It has been agreed all road works should already be finished before the rainy season.
To prevent problems on road constructions from happening again, the chief executive suggested the DPWH to look into contractors' available manpower, equipment and project backgrounds before they qualify them to the bidding process to ensure efficiency.