BACOLOD City Mayor Evelio R. Leonardia said they are not after the credit insofar as the construction of the two flyover projects in the city probably within the year.
What is important for him is that these projects will be implemented. Whoever these projects belong is not his concern, he said.
Leonardia recalled that it was Dr. Roger Balo, the city administrator who was first approached by the Department of Public Works and Highways regarding the flyover projects for Bacolod, under the President's Bridge program.
The mayor further disclosed that he (Balo) facilitated the public hearings including the acquisition of the Environmental Compliance Certificate.
It was then due for implementation when an official of the city made everything more complicated. The opposition raised by the owners of the buildings was also among the reasons why the projects were shelved for eight months.
When it was revived, the former Bacolod City lone district congressman Monico Puentevella claimed the projects as his own, Leonardia further said.
Meanwhile, Bacolod City lone district Representative Anthony Golez recently met with the DPWH officials, Woodfields Consultancy, Inc., Matiere, among others regarding the said projects.
He said that these projects will be jointly implemented by the city and his office but generally, the funding will come from the National Government.
He further stated that these projects were shelved and he worked for its revival and that Bacolod was able to get two flyover projects despite the fact that there are 75 local government units, which requested for it, but only six are left available.
Leonardia, on the other hand, is still pushing for his preference to place one flyover at the Burgos-Circumferential intersection as these are among the busiest intersections in the city with the forthcoming operation of the Save More by Shoe Mart, the Pan Asiatic Solutions, Inc. Call Center, the subdivisions that are starting to mushroom in the Eastern part of the city, among others.
The flyover project will cost P384 million each. (Carla N. Canet)