Cong. District has P1-B this Year - DPWH

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

STA. BARBARA, Pangasinan – The top brass of the Fourth District Engineering Office of the Department of Public Works & Highway based here said his office will have a One Billion Pesos infrastructure projects this year from the national government.

District Engineer Simplicio D. Gonzales told to this writer that his jurisdiction, that covers San Carlos City and the towns of Calasiao, Mapandan, Malasiqui, Sta. Barbara, and Bayambang has P1 Billion appropriation this year from the central government.

BRASS. Pangasinan Third District Representative Rosemarie "Baby" Arenas (left) and Fourth District Engineering Office District Engineer Simplicio Gonzales of the Department of Public Works & Highway.

Gonzales said that projects being funded by the allocation are drainage system, elevation of highways,and others.

He told this newspaper last year that major projects funded by the year 2020 P1.1 billion appropriation were slope protection, road widening, and others.

“Siguro ganoon na rin iyon hinde na magbabago kayang kaya nila iyon parang final na rin iyon,” he told the certainty of the One Billion Pesos as project for this year in the congressional district located in central Pangasinan.

District is represented by Congresswoman Rosemarie Arenas.

Gonzales cited the elevation of the highway in Barangay San Miguel, Calasiao funded by P17 million has been completed to thwart the flood water that submerged it.

Gonzales said that because of the rampages of the pandemic’s Corona Virus Disease -19 the implementation of several projects have been delayed for their completion dates.

“Oo naman. Earlier dapat natapos pero natigil sila. April May mga two months. Kung wala iyon marami ng natapos. Madami 2020 projects hinde natapos”.

He said the P13 million drainage system to stop if not mitigate the flooding in the poblacion area of Calasiao particularly in the peripheries of Chowking to the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s office will be completed early this year too.

The drainage problem in the burgeoning town started in 2017 when the owner of a land where a creek is located at the Judge Jose de Venecia Highway back filled it to elevate his property. The back filling however impeded the flow of the drainage water that egress to the Banaoang River. 

Gonzales said another factor that aggravated the problem there was the construction, not during his watch, of the sewerage system that was not tilting to the exit in the Banaoang River. He explained that part of the P13 million budget was the reconstruction of a more than kilometer long concrete canal system.
He told this writer last year that he would propose to the DPWH in Manila about the funding to construct another egress of water from the same drainage system that will exit at the Parongking River. 

Calasiao and the nearby Dagupan City are the catch basin of flood water in Pangasinan.

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