Slow road repair messes up traffic in Baguio

BAGUIO CITY—The city government has been flooded with complaints over road concreting projects that were begun at the start of the rainy season and which slowed down traffic in key parts of Baguio.

Slow repair work on Loakan Road, that may last for six months, has affected traffic to and from the Baguio City Economic Zone, the Loakan Airport, the Philippine Military Academy and Itogon, Benguet.

Traffic has also been affected on Bokawkan Road, which links motorists traveling from Naguilian Road to La Trinidad, Benguet.

The Naguilian Road, the highway leading to La Union, is also due for an upgrade in the coming weeks, while the road leading to heavily populated Quezon Hill is undergoing repairs.

The reason for the delay in starting road repair projects is a new system enforced by Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson that requires district engineers to begin the process of executing a project only after they have secured a special allotment release order (Saro) signifying there is money to finance it, said Baguio Rep. Bernardo Vergara, vice chair of the House committee on public works.

The new system is part of the Aquino administration’s process to clean up anomalies in the Department of Public Works and Highways, said Vergara.

President Aquino also required district engineers to rehabilitate all national roads before his term ends in 2016, he said.

Vergara said the administration’s decision to slow down the programming of road projects enabled Singson to study the volume of projects lined up for 2011, and to block projects that may not be necessary.

But Vergara said the monitoring system should not obstruct projects already lined up by the year’s General Appropriations Act (GAA) or the budget law, which has undergone scrutiny by both Malacañang and Congress.

He said during the term of former President Fidel Ramos, projects in the GAA were allowed to undergo bidding at the start of the year to save time, so when the Saro becomes available, all the district engineer has to do is execute the road work, Vergara said. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon