Environmentalists alarmed after Guiting-Guiting road appears in budget documents

ROMBLON PEAK Reaching the summit of Mt. Guiting-Guiting on Sibuyan Island in Romblon province is an achievement for every serious mountaineer. In 2018, environmentalists in Romblon succeeded in stopping a road project that they feared would damage sections of Mt. Guiting-Guiting Natural Park. —BINO RODEO/CONTRIBUTOR

A road project that would have traversed a portion of the biodiversity-rich Mt. Guiting-Guiting Natural Park in Romblon province has “reappeared” in the 2020 national government budget and expenditures, alarming environmental groups of renewed efforts to push the road construction they had opposed two years ago.

But Willy Mallari, director of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan), on Tuesday denied this, saying the P395 million allocated for the road had been “reverted” to the national government after the construction on Sibuyan Island in Romblon was stalled in 2018.

Error?“For the DPWH, we don’t have a budget for 2020 for that project there (on Sibuyan Island),” Mallari said in a phone interview.

The road project, to be implemented in four phases and titled, “Magdiwang-San Fernando National Road, Cross Country Road leading to Magdiwang Port,” appeared in the 2020 National Expenditure Program and in a copy of the General Appropriations Act (GAA) 2020 uploaded to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) website.

It was not included, however, in the copy of the 2020 GAA published in the Official Gazette. “I don’t know where the error [came from],” Mallari said.

In a letter, Rodne Galicha of the nongovernment Bayay Sibuyanon Inc. asked Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado to “remove the project from (DBM’s) 2020 files to avoid errors of judgment and confusion, and put an end to this issue.” Galicha is also a member of the Regional Development Council.

Environmental groups feared that the 3.8-kilometer concrete road would ruin Mt. Guiting-Guiting in Sibuyan.Opposition

In 2018, local opposition, which claimed there were no prior studies and consultation, forced the DPWH to stop the project and halt the clearing operation in Barangay Jao-asan in Magdiwang town.

In a June 16 letter addressed to Galicha, Romblon district engineer Napoleon Famadico said the project “was not implemented since it crossed the Mt. Guiting-Guiting [Natural] Park, a declared protected area. The funds allotted for the project was already reverted to DBM.”

“Rest assured that [the road] will not be considered in our future programs until such time that all the requirements, clearances and approval of all concerned are met,” Famadico added.