Agusan Sur gov says road repair is a DPWH project 

Agusan del Sur map. INQUIRER FILES

SAN FRANCISCO, AGUSAN DEL SUR — Governor Santiago Cane, Jr. slammed the criticism by a netizen about the provincial government’s spending P2.5 million on Vice Ganda’s talent fee while people had to suffer bad roads that the government failed to repair.

Vice Ganda was in town to perform during the Naliyagan festivities that opened on Sunday, June 11, and end on June 17.

The netizen was referring to the unfinished repair of the national highway in Trento and Rosario towns.

The governor explained that the rehabilitation of the Maharlika Highway was not a project of the provincial government but of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

He said the Naliyagan Festival celebration on June 11-17 had nothing to do with the concreting and repair of the national highway.

The netizen, known only by his account name So Ph la, posted on Facebook saying in Cebuano: “They can afford Vice Ganda’s talent fee of P2.5 million but the bad roads from Trento to Rosario towns have not been repaired for a decade already. Wow, just wow, ha, Agusan del Sur.”

The governor said the province allotted P21.5 million for the week-long Naliyagan Festival. All other operating expenses, including the talent fees of visiting artists, are shouldered by corporate sponsors through a solicitation by the Naliyagan Festival Foundation, the organizer of the festival.

Cane also relayed that the DPWH engineering district told him that the national government’s budget to rehabilitate the road sections in the province had been slashed.

Engineer Ben Alden Serna, DPWH District Engineer, said they had difficulties doing maintenance work since their budget had been slashed from P60 million to just P20 million last year, according to Cane.

The governor said the Sangguniang Panlalawigan could not just allocate funds for the repair of the national highway because that would be considered “misappropriation” of government funds.

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