Assessment on LGUs’ road clearing drive out next week—DILG

MANILA, Philippines—The performance of local government units (LGU) in clearing obstructions on public roads will be made public next week, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said Thursday.

Speaking to reporters after a closed-door Metro Manila Council meeting, Interior Undersecretary Epimaco Densing said DILG validation teams have started visiting all LGUs for an assessment and will finish their reports by Oct. 5, Saturday.

“What we will be looking at in our evaluation is if there’s substantial compliance. As of today, there’s a validating team looking around for the next 7 days until Oct. 5. There are certain criteria, whether they complied with it or not, lalabas ‘yan next week (it will be released next week),” Densing said.

“I think (Interior) Sec. (Eduardo) Año himself will divulge that evaluation,” he added.

READ: DILG: LGUs ‘substantially’ compliant in road-clearing drive

The DILG official said the validation teams will be composed of a Local Government Operations Officer and representatives from the Philippine National Police (PNP), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), a DILG-accredited non-government organization (NGO).

The DILG earlier said those who are found to be non-compliant will be issued show-cause orders before their names are submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte.

In his fourth State of the Nation Address (Sona) more than two months ago, Duterte gave local government heads across the country 60 days to reclaim all public roads that were being used for private purposes.

Duterte’s deadline lapsed on Sept. 29.

READ: Duterte to Año: Take back public roads to ease Metro Manila traffic