LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET ? The Department of Public Works and Highways and the Department of Transportation and Communication in the Cordillera are expected to clash anew over which of them has the authority to declare Kennon Road unsafe for public transport.

DPWH officials used the provincial board?s session here on Monday to assail a memorandum circular issued by lawyer Federico Mandapat Jr., DOTC regional director, which banned public utility vehicles from passing through Kennon.

Allies

The DPWH found an ally in board members who agreed to pass next week a resolution asking Mandapat to recall his circular that took effect on Sept. 1 last year.

Wayne Nabban, chief of the Baguio-Bontoc Kennon toll road section, said the authority to give traffic advisory on the road?s safety remained with the DPWH, not the DOTC.

Nabban reminded Mandapat that Mariano Alquiza, DPWH regional director, wrote him last year questioning the circular.

Discrimination

Alquiza?s Sept. 7 letter said the DPWH is the proper authority to give a traffic advisory on road safety, adding that Mandapat?s circular is discriminatory as it only sought to prohibit interregional PUVs.

In the circular, Mandapat said all public utility vehicles must travel through Marcos Highway and avoid Kennon because of the road?s unstable condition.

But Nabban said Mandapat?s circular was ill-advised since other government agencies were not consulted before it was issued.

Caught in the turf war between DPWH and the DOTC is the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, whose study showed Kennon?s instability. Mandapat based his circular on the MGB findings.

Faye Apil, MGB geologist, told the board that based on a 2006 geohazard mapping, a stretch of Kennon from Baguio to Camp 4 in Tuba, Benguet, was 85-percent ?highly susceptible to landslide.?

This is due to the loose nature of the bedrock and slopes of the road that make them prone to landslides, especially during rainy season, she said.

But Alexander Castaneda, Benguet district engineer, said the MGB failed to coordinate with the DPWH in coming up with the geohazard map.

The DPWH, he said, has been working to reduce the danger zones along Kennon.

Inconvenience

Board Members Rogelio Leon and Juan Nazarro Jr. said Mandapat should recall the circular that had inconvenienced a lot of Tuba residents and commuters.

Mandapat earlier told the board that President Macapagal-Arroyo issued a directive in September last year that transferred the functions of a multisectoral agency on road safety to the DOTC. But Nabban said the DPWH has not received such directive.

Nabban said the DPWH was still the lead agency tasked with declaring whether Kennon was fit for public transport.