Sustains people’s clamor in Caramoan and Catanduanes
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last week reassured Bicol bishops pushing for the completion of the Caramoan coastal road that the project will definitely be continuously pursued and completed.
Heeding the clamor of Caramoan municipal and barangay officials and hundreds of members of socio-civic and religious organizations, the President also said the proposed Caramoan airport which the provincial government wanted to build close to the town proper and within the very limited coverage area of the Hanopol Dam Irrigation System will no longer be pursued.
Virac Bishop Manolo A. de los Santos, D.D. first relayed to PENINSULA MONITOR the President’s assurance on the coastal road.
He also said that Undersecretary Ma. Fatima A.S. Valdes disclosed that DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza is recalling the P45 million allocation for the proposed Caramoan airport.
Virac RTC Judge Lelu Contreras during an audience of women judges Friday last week with President Arroyo in Malacañang had opportunity to talk with the President and asked about the coastal road and the Caramoan airport.
The President categorically said the Caramoan coastal road will be completed but the airport will no longer be pushed through, Judge Contreras told PENINSULA MONITOR.
The President may have considered the massive opposition to the airport plan and the legal complications involved since according to law an irrigation area should not be the site of another government project. The government has already spent about P110 million for the irrigation project.
Morever, landowners are mostly resisting the use of their land for the airport.
The commitment effectively relieved the anxiety of thousands of constituents in the Caramoan Peninsula and Catanduanes awaiting the completion of the crucial Caramoan coastal road project that will hasten economic development of the Caramoan Peninsula and pave the way for the proposed roll on-roll off project linking Catanduanes to Caramoan in just 30 minutes.
DPWH officials in Manila last November had considered suspending work in the coastal road and transfer funds already earmarked for the project to the Gov. Felix Fuentebella Highway.
Catanduanes Gov. Joseph Cua had forcefully batted for the continuance and completion of the Caramoan coastal road during the convention of governors at the Camarines Sur provincial capitol last February 13 in the presence of President Arroyo.
Bishop de los Santos wrote the President in January reiterating the need to pursue the project after DPWH officials in Manila proposed to transfer funds allocated by the President for the coastal road to the mountain road. The letter was also signed by Archbishop Leonardo Z. Legaspi, O.P., D.D., Archbishop of Caceres.
The same letter sought the investigation of reported ghost projects in the Third District including seven projects costing P100 million in the mountain road which may have precipitated the planned fund transfer to cover up for the unimplemented projects.
Congressman Luis R. Villafuerte who was among the first proponents of the Caramoan coastal road also wrote President Arroyo citing the need to finish the coastal road. He also asked that the reported irregularities involving about P170 million in projects in the Third District supposed to have been implemented before the May, 2007 election be investigated.
He said many residents in the area have reported to him that no road rehabilitation project whatsoever had been undertaken along the Caramoan Peninsula mountain road from January to May, 2007.
