PALO, Leyte – The national government has achieved 100% of its target for infrastructure development in Eastern Visayas under the regular budget and accomplished half of the goal for additional releases, making 2011 a banner year for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Region 8.
 
DPWH Regional Director Rolando Asis said that they were able to implement 140 projects in the region from January to December 2011 with a total cost of about P3 billion, out of the total P4 billion funds release for the region.

 “We are 100% in the implementation of P1.8 billion worth of projects disbursed under our regular budget. For additional releases, we only accomplished 50% considering that the budget was only allocated during later part of last year,” Asis told Leyte Samar Daily Express.

 For the last four months of 2011, the Department of Budget and Management announced the release of P1.93 billion for infrastructure development. This was part of the stimulus package of the Aquino government.

 The DPWH has slowed down its spending until the third quarter of 2011 as the agency moved for quality spending and realignments.

 From January to August 2011, the DPWH Region 8 ranked number one among all regional offices of the department nationwide in terms of project implementation. With the huge amount of additional releases, the field office ranking slipped to the sixth place from September to December.

 “Our ranking is still commendable considering the big amount released to us for the last quarter.  The DPWH in Eastern Visayas is the only region in the country with additional funds higher than the regular budget,” Asis said

 Asis vowed to fast track and be more transparent in the implementation of projects in 2012 in support to the “tuwid na landas” campaign of President Benigno Aquino. The DPWH- 8 gets a regular budget of P3.7 billion this year.

 DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson laid down his “DPWH Transformation Framework,” with the aim to transform the organization and its employees; simplify and innovate to reduce corruption and improve efficiency; and optimize resources.

 Singson declared the department’s goal that “by 2016, the national road network of the country shall have an International Roughness Index (IRI) of 2.0 or below 3 to be at par with Malaysia road network.”

By Sarwell Q. Meniano
Correspondent