BAGUIO CITY?Sections of the Halsema Highway and other road stretches in Benguet and Mt. Province, which were damaged by Typhoon ?Pepeng,? have been restored, according to Public Works Secretary Victor Domingo.

But the completion of Halsema Highway continued to be an issue polarizing Cabinet officials.

Thomas Killip, presidential adviser for poverty alleviation in the Cordillera, urged the Cabinet to suspend the project due to anomalies he had uncovered.

?I asked for the suspension of the rehabilitation but they told me that I don?t know what I?m talking about,? he said.

Killip and Domingo attended the final Cabinet session of 2009 convened by President Macapagal-Arroyo at the presidential Mansion on Tuesday.

Domingo said the stretch of Halsema Highway from La Trinidad, Benguet, to Mt. Data in Bauko, Mt. Province, is fully rehabilitated, while the portion from Mt. Data to Bontoc, Mt. Province, is 90-percent finished.

The Bued Bridge, which was split by the river at the height of the typhoon, was rehabilitated this month.

Among the roads in northern Luzon that the government expects to be repaired soon are the Apayao-Ilocos Norte Road that runs through Solsona, Ilocos Norte, and the Abra-Ilocos Norte Road.

It is the section of the Halsema Highway leading to Mt. Province, which remains contentious, said Killip, former mayor of the tourist town of Sagada in Mt. Province.

Medel Flores, a private consultant, decided to test the aggregate materials being used for the rehabilitation of the Mt. Data-Bontoc portion of the highway, he said. Frank Cimatu, Inquirer Northern Luzon