DPWH estimates damage to Bohol infrastructure at P630 M

By: Jerry E. Esplanada - 11 years ago

Residents walk along a damaged road in Bohol. AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The damage wrought by Tuesday’s killer earthquake on roads, bridges and other public infrastructure in Bohol has been initially estimated by the Department of Public Works and Highways at least P630 million.

This was disclosed to the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Thursday by Assistant Director Juvy Cordon of the Department of Public Works and Highways Region 7 office in Cebu City.

“Those are just initial estimates,” she said in a telephone interview. “The amount of damage to infrastructure is likely to go up.”

Four major roads and 13 bridges in the province were among those severely damaged by the October 15 earthquake, which had a magnitude of 7.2 on the Richter scale, which measures the force released at the center of an earthquake. Three of the bridges completely collapsed, according to DPWH.

“Emergency road repairs in Bohol have started on orders of Secretary Rogelio Singson,” said Cordon, adding that the public works boss directed work crews to “finish the road repairs by end of October.”

In a related development, the Commission on Elections said the emergency road repairs being conducted by the DPWH were exempted from the election body’s ban on such projects during the October 18 to 26 campaign period for the October 28 barangay elections.

James Jimenez, Comelec spokesperson, said they “typically allow road constructions or repairs, especially for humanitarian or emergency purposes.”

“They should just inform us and we’ll just give them, as a matter of course, exemption from the ban. Normally, it just takes a little bit of coordination with us,” he told the Inquirer.

The DPWH head office in Manila said it has deployed 13 teams of engineers to “assess the structural integrity of public buildings and other infrastructure in Bohol.” Each team is composed of three structural engineers.

“They will complement personnel of DPWH-Region 7’s three engineering districts,” Cordon added.