ILOILO CITY — The use of mountain soil as an alternative to address the shortage of sand and gravel for the construction of various projects implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Iloilo is being explored.
The provincial government will create an inter-agency task force that will study the possibility of mountain quarrying in the province, said Governor Arthur Defensor Sr. on Wednesday afternoon.
The creation of the task force was among the results of the governor’s meeting with representatives of the DPWH in Western Visayas (DPWH-6) on the same day.
Defensor said they will enter into a memorandum of agreement with the DPWH-6 and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources 6 (DENR-6) for the creation of the task force.
“They (task force) will explore (the) immediate possibility of plowing the mountain to acquire sand and gravel,” he said.
Aside from studying the possibility of mountain quarrying, Defensor said that the task force will identify who are the contractors that will be prioritized in terms of the granting of quarry permits.
Earlier, DPWH-6 wrote a letter to the governor to prioritize the contractors implementing DPWH projects in granting quarry permits because they have observed that one of the reasons for the delay of the implementation of the projects was the “insufficiency of aggregates” that are used in the projects.
DPWH-6 Regional Director Wenceslao M. Leaño Jr. said there are about PHP11 billion worth of projects allotted for Iloilo province in 2018.
The budget increased compared to the PHP8 billion worth of projects allotted last year.
These projects are composed of roads, bridges, schools, among others, he said.
Leaño said they need 329,621 cubic meters of sand and 537,722 cubic meters of gravel for the implementation of projects intended in the province this year.
He welcomed the proposed creation of the task force because they will have an additional source of aggregates.
“The task force will solve the problem on the shortage of aggregates,” he said.
Meanwhile, Leaño said that his request to prioritize the contractors in terms of granting of quarry permits was also sent to other provincial governors in the region.
He said they wanted all projects to be completed on time, in the wake of an earlier warning issued by President Rodrigo Duterte against delayed projects, particularly roads. (Cindy Ferrer/PNA)
