DEPW says budget limits their projects to few brgys.

Cebu City’s Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) has implemented P26 million worth of road asphalting and patching in several barangays over the past month.

The Department or Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 7 has also implemented several road repairs in the city, including the asphalting of the portion of Osmeña Blvd.

Engr. Niva Bayucot, chief of the maintenance section of DEPW, said that they can only accommodate few requests for asphalting of barangay and interior roads due to the limited budget they have this year.

Bayucot said that under the 2017 proposed annual budget, their division submitted over P100 million for road asphalting but only P26 million was approved.

“We hope that there will be additional budget for road asphalt when the executive department submits supplemental budget to allow us to accommodate more requests from the barangays,” she told SunStar Cebu.

Based on the records of DEPW, there are 128 requests from different barangays with the approved program or works and estimates from the Office of the Mayor.

Of the 128, DEPW has completed 14 road asphalting projects in the barangays.

Aside from the completed projects, Bayucot said there are ongoing road asphalting projects also in other barangays that are expected to be done within the week.

This include the road asphalting of Sitio San Miguel Barangay Apas, which is long overdue.

Apas Barangay Captain Ramil Ayuman said he is thankful that asphalting works have finally reached his barangay after several knocks on City Hall’s door.

Ayuman has been sending requests to City Hall for the repair of their barangay roads.

Meanwhile, Engr. Josefa Ylanan, chief of DEPW, said DPWH 7 has implemented a road asphalting project along Osmeña Blvd., particularly along Fuente Osmeña Circle toward the Cebu Provincial Capitol.

Ylanan said the DPWH 7 coordinated them before the implementation of the project.