ARMM rate lowest on road projects— officials

MARAWI CITY — Contractors evade Muslim Mindanao for having the country’s lowest official estimates on road construction cost per kilometer, averaging a third cheaper than those in other regions,
officials said.Lanao del Sur Governor Mamintal Adiong Jr. said only three contractors operate in his province—the Al Hussein Construction, Cavdeal and WTG Construction firms—because in other regions, road concreting costs much higher, from P 37 million to P 40 million per kilometer.
Regional Secretary Don Mustapha Loong of the Department of Public Works and Highways in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DPWH-ARMM) said the national road program for the region’s official costing on road concreting, ranges only from P 20 million to P 25 million per kilometer.
But despite this, ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman showed how geo-tagged roads concreting in ARMM
provinces were done at fast-pace with DPWH-ARMM implementing them by administration.”
Geotagged” means projects can be monitored via satellite even by the Commission on Audit (COA),” said District Engineer Abib Arumpac of Lanao del Sur District II.
In some cases, memorandums of agreement (MOAs) allow local government units (LGUs) to implement road concreting project, as long as they were prequalified in terms of both human and equipment resources capability, said Engineer Luzvismin Sani, head of the Lanao del Sur first district engineering office.
This is to maximize funding resources in terms of roads length concreted. It’s a choice between having more than one-kilometer and having less at the same cost in areas, where there is least number of
roads paved,” Loong said.
But Loong said the P 37-40 million package in administrative regions usually covers shouldering pavement and the roadside drainage lines.
On Friday, Hataman and Adiong signed a MOA, allowing the provincial government of Lanao del Sur to implement the 11-kilometer Kapai-Tagoloan road concreting for P220 million.
Hataman said where construction firms fell short, the government allows the DPWH to do its own infrastructure project, or pass the works at close supervision to prequalified LGUs through MOA.

Implementation by MOA also gives employment opportunity to local residents, LGU officials said.

Adiong said Lanao del Sur used to receive P 30 million in annual infrastructure, addingand Minsan wala pa noon (Sometimes there’s none in the past).”
But last year, Adiong said he was happy that President Benigno Aquino III told him to submit proposals to address the province’s backlog in infrastructure development, instead of giving it to me in piecemeal.”
Once completed, the Kapai-Tagoloan road will shorten travel distance and time from Marawi City to Wao town. Wao, which is also part of Lanao del Sur, is ironically travelled from Marawi City or other parts
of the province via Iligan City (Lanao Norte), Cagayan de Oro City (Misamis Oriental) and other parts Bukidnon—all in Region 10, officials said.
The travel-time will also be shortened by about two hours from an average of 3.5 hours, as the new route skips Iligan City,” said Loong.