PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan – The provincial government led the inauguration of over PHP143-million worth of road projects in the municipality of Brooke’s Point, southern Palawan on Friday afternoon.
The amount covers two road projects in Barangays Calasaguen and Ipilan in Brooke’s Point, a first class municipality located 219.5 km via the Puerto Princesa South Road.
Governor Jose Alvarez led the groundbreaking ceremony with former Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) secretary Gina Lopez, and Mayor Mary Jean Feliciano of Brooke’s Point.
The amount covers the concreting of the 4.8-kilometer Calasaguen Feeder Road at PHP62,339.864, which will benefit 589 households; and the 5.640-kilometer concreting of Ipilan to Linao road with a budget of PHP80,757,611 and serving an estimated 1,189 households.
“The town of Brooke’s Point is really blessed because our roads will now be fixed. This is our only dream – to serve Palawan,” Feliciano said, adding “all these progress are for the residents of the province.”
The funds for the road projects came from the “Kalsada Program” of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)’ Conditional Matching Grant for Provinces, which was awarded to the Palawan government for achieving the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG).
Benedict Palatino, Brooke’s Point local government officer, said Palawan received the biggest fund allocation for the implementation of the road projects.
He said the DILG had allocated PHP45 million for each province, but Palawan would receive even more – around PHP800 million for the concreting of all provincial roads.
“The budget is the same, and if you want to have more, you need to propose nut in Palawan, it’s different, we received the biggest. We are thankful that we were given this project because if truth be told, it is difficult when your roads are bad,” he said.
Aside from Brooke’s Point, the towns of Culion, Roxas and Taytay are also among the beneficiaries of the DILG’s Kalsada Program this year. (Celeste Anna Formoso/PNA)
