By Glenda SOLOGASTOA
ILOILO City – By the time this year ends, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Region 6 will have accomplished at least 90 percent of its line items.
Regional Director Edilberto Tayao made this assurance during a live appearance yesterday on Panay News’ radio program “Reklamo Publiko” on DyOK Aksyon Radyo-Iloilo.
Tayao said DPWH’s various infrastructure projects in Western Visayas for 2014 have a total budget of P12 billion.
“All these projects have been bid out and ongoing. As of August, these projects are 49 percent complete,” said Tayao.
While they had hoped to accomplish 100 percent, Tayao said natural impediments such as the rainy season and unexpected calamities had intervened.
“The remaining 10 percent will spill over in the first quarter of 2015,” said Tayao.
Of the total budget for 2014, the biggest allocation or some 30 percent went to the city and province of Iloilo, followed by Negros Occidental with 20 to 25 percent, while the rest is shared by other provinces in the region.
Meanwhile, Tayao explained why DPWH has few road projects in Capiz: There are very few national roads there.
Only when a provincial road is converted into a national road does it qualify for DPWH funding.
Aside from P12 billion purely locally-funded projects, there are foreign-assisted ones across Region 6 that are being implemented.
The regional director said all Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP)-funded projects under DPWH had been completed when the Supreme Court declared DAP unconstitutional.
Among the partly DAP-funded projects that Tayao cited is the P830-million Iloilo Convention Center. /PN
