Gov’t readies master plan to rebuild Marawi City

Mark Villar —JOAN BONDOC

Public Works Secretary Mark Villar said the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) was helping in formulating a “master plan” to rebuild Marawi City into a prosperous city once the fighting there ends.

“The President wants to implement the rehabilitation very quickly. So we’ve been preparing for this over the past few weeks and currently (we are designing) the master plan,” Villar said.

He said the administration would avoid the mistakes that were committed when the government rebuilt communities in Eastern Visayas devastated by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan)  in 2013.

“The President is very clear on this … He expressed his disappointment in the facilities for Yolanda before. Definitely, that will not happen again,” Villar said.

He said the resettlement sites should be near sources of water and electricity. “That’s basic. We’ve already seen the mistakes from the past and we will not repeat them.”

Biggest infra budget

Villar noted that the DPWH budget for 2017 was P428.4 billion, the biggest in the country’s history.

“To give you a scale of this in absolute amount, if you add the (infrastructure) budgets of 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, (the total) will still be less than the infrastructure budget that we allocated in 2017,” he added.

The administration is embarking on an ambitious “build, build, build program” to upgrade the quality of public infrastructure, which has adversely affected the country’s economic growth.

Traffic decongestion

Villar said the funds would be used for, among other things, the construction of more than 200 bypass roads to decongest traffic in major urban areas, at least 12 new bridges that would span Pasig River and a road network in Luzon that would cut travel from Bicol and La Union to less than 12 hours.

“We’ve allocated P107.8 billion for traffic decongestion. We lose P2.4 billion every day due to traffic so we feel that these investments on traffic decongestion will significantly minimize traffic,” Villar said.

He added that the DPWH would build this year more than 200 bypass roads across the country, “by far the most ambitious traffic decongestion program in the history of our country.”

Villar said the administration was also investing in the “Luzon Spine Expressway Network” for the construction or improvement of 18 major highways on the country’s biggest island.

“This is a collection of 18 major high-speed highways that will connect the most northern part of Luzon to the most southern part. This is from Bicol to as far as La Union and possibly up to Ilocos,” he said.

Villar said that once the network was finished, one could go from Bicol to La Union in less than 12 hours. “We are targeting to finish this before the end of the President’s term.”

The government has started construction of the Davao City Coastal Road in the President’s hometown while the New Bacolod Economic Highway will provide a “new growth corridor” in Negros.

“I’m sure many of you are aware of the traffic issues in Cebu. So, the Metro Cebu Expressway will run from Naga to Danao,” Villar said.

“We feel that this will be a long-term solution for the perennial traffic issues in Cebu. There’s already a feasibility study. It’s ready for implementation next year,” he said.

12 bridges across Pasig

In Metro Manila, the administration intends to build more than 12 new bridges across the Pasig River to decongest the Guadalupe Bridge and the C-5 Bridge.

He said the bridges would also be finished before the end of Mr. Duterte’s term. “And of course, we will also need to rehabilitate Guadalupe Bridge.”

Villar said the DPWH was also studying various road extensions for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Expressway.

“At this point, we are also looking at the various options if the Naia Expressway could be extended so that there will be more traffic solutions,” he said

Road networks

“For example, there could be one going to the Fort, going to Parañaque, or going to Las Piñas,” he added.

Villar said the DPWH had also set aside P95.9 billion for the construction of road networks to spur trade and tourism while P104.4 billion was allocated for “Livable, Sustainable and Resilient Communities.”

“We know global warming is a big problem and we are one of the (countries) most prone to natural disasters. So the government is investing in natural disaster prevention—that’s the Livable, Sustainable and Resilient Communities,” he said.