Rama: DPWH should confer with City Hall

CEBU City Mayor Michael Rama is asking the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to coordinate with city government engineers on national government-funded projects in the city.

Rama said giving this “courtesy” to City Hall would prevent overlapping of projects and bickering especially between him and Rep. Tomas Osmeña of the south district and Rep. Rachel “Cutie” Del Mar of the north district.

“Ug wala lang untay away sa politika nindot sad unta nga i-lingkod sa mayor ug ang duha ka kongresista para hisgutan ang mga projects,” (Had there been no political quarrel, it would have been nice for the mayor and the two congress representatives to sit down to discuss projects), he said.

But since this is not possible, Rama said he wants DPWH engineers to always consult city engineers in the implementation of projects in the city.

Rep. Rachel “Cutie” del Mar only smiled when sought for comment on Rama’s call for coordination with the city government.

She said it is DPWH that implements national funded projects in the city.

On the road widening project in the city, Del Mar reminded the mayor that he was the one who proposed road widening before the implementation of any flyovers.

The flyover she proposed along M. J. Cuenco and General Maxilom Avenues was put on hold last year by the DPWH at the height of the debate over the effect of flyovers on urban planning, heritage sites, traffic flow and the environment aside from lack of public consultation on the rise of more flyovers.

“If there is no politics the flyover project would have been up by now,” del Mar said.

Rama met with City Engineer Kenneth Carmelita Enriquez and Office of the Building Official Josefa Ylanan on Thursday to discuss the need to require DPWH to always coordinate with the city.

The mayor said while DPWH implements national funded projects, the city government could give them inputs on how to go about its implementation.

“Sometimes the DPWH only connects with the congressmen and forget there is a local government,” he said.

Rama said congressmen should focus on implementaion instead of intervening in project implementation.

“Is building roads part of their work as congressmen?” the mayor asked.

He said that even the Priority Assistance Development Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel is not released directly to congressmen.

The amount is released to DPWH to implement projects in the different congressional districts.

“DPWH is there to see to it that the project is put in place,” Rama said.