MANDAUE BUYS AMPHIBIOUS VEHICLE WORTH P37 MILLION

The city of Mandaue acquired its first amphibious vehicle worth P37 million yesterday to be used primarily for dredging the Butuanon River and Mahiga Creek.

"With this machine, we'll be able to go into the rivers, into the stream primarily sa Butuanon river ug sa Mahiga creek," said Mayor Luigi Quisumbing.

He said that because of budget limitations, the city can only afford to purchase one vehicle.

"Part of the problem man gud that we face when we have the dredging operations is that the tradition of dredging requires a place to park the backhoe, the excavator," Quisumbing said.

According to Quisumbing, the presence of illegal settlers along the banks of the river and creek prevents heavy machinery parking and that zoning violations make the roads inaccessible.

"Unfortunately because of years of abuse, there are not many places to park, either inaccessible gyud siya, walay mga dalan, etc. or even worse because of kining zoning violations and in some places the presence of illegal settlers that there are difficulties were we can put the excavators, unya mo build-up ang basura, mo build-up ang siltation, mo-resulta, grabe gyud ang baha," he said.

"Kita Mandaue, as the catch basin, as the lowlying land sa Metro Cebu we will continue to expect that siltation and trash coming from the streams will continue to be a problem. That's why we would be able to act as quickly as possible with our own equipment," he added.

He also said that they cannot just depend on what assistance can be provided by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), that's why the city decided to purchase its own vehicle.

"DPWH has a similar machine but the problem is they have to serve the entire region. Dili ta mo depende sa DPWH kay usahay di mu-serve ang machine kay it is deployed somewhere," he said.

Berky Mowing Machines, a German company that manufactured the vehicle, conducted a site survey and gave recommendations to the city government before turning over the vehicle.

Martin Alkemeier, Area Sales Manager of Berky Mowing Machines, assured the city that the machine can clean creeks, small canals, and rivers whether in deep or shallow waters.

“It's fully amphibious and it can float like a boat but it can also operate on land like swampy areas or any conditions we can find here in the country,” said Alkemeier.

Alkemeier will set up the machine and will also share his knowledge in a driving and operation training for those who will be operating the machine.

“There's no point of bringing the machine, putting the people in and saying good luck! We believe in long lasting relationships, proper training, and then this machine could do very good things for the city for many years,” he said.