STA.FE, Leyte- An official of this town said that bidding for the repair of two structures damaged during the onslaught of supertyphoon Yolanda would be scheduled soon. Councilor Eddie Lantajo, chairman on the committee on infrastructures of the town council, said that the bidding is for the repair of the municipal gymnasium and public market, both sustained major damages due to Yolanda.
According to Lantajo, the repair of the two public structures would be financed under the Recovery Assistant to Yolanda (RAY) of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). The official said that their town received P3.6 million of which P1.1 million would be used for the repair of the public market with the remaining amount of P2.5 million for the rehabilitation of the town’s gymnasium. The town gymnasium was undergoing repair with the funds coming from Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin “FM” Romualdez. Lantajo also said that the on-going repair of their municipal gym was one of the proposed projects submitted by Rep.Romualdez to the Department of Public Works and Highways in which they started the implementation last July 7 of this year.
On the other hand, the Committee on Infrastructure of the SB of Sta. Fe they wants to fast track the implementation of these projects for they are afraid that the fund may be returned to the DILG once the projects will not be implemented within this year. Aside from this, they want the people of Sta. Fe to see and know that they are not preventing the LGU of implementing this project. Lantajo said that they are aiming to hasten the repair works of the two structures for fear that the budget allocated for the works might be reverted back to the national treasury if they could not finish them before the end of the year.
Earlier, DILG Regional Director Pedro Noval issued a warning to all local government units provided with funds under RAY to finish their rehabilitation works before December of this year otherwise the funds would be returned to them. Aside from this, the Local Government of Sta. Fe, as an adopted municipality of Quezon City, received also funding from the City Government of Quezon amounting to 22 million which will be used for the renovation of their municipal town hall. The project to be implemented under the fund which was given by the Quezon City is also in the process of bidding in which they already submitted already the program of works and other documents to the City Government of Quezon. With the various projects implemented and to be implemented in municipality of Sta. Fe, the Committee on Infrastructure expects that all of the projects will be finished before the year ends. (RYAN GABRIEL ARCENAS)
