BAGUIO CITY – The City Council approved a resolution requesting the regional and district offices of the Department of Public works and Highways (DPWH) to include provisions for ingress and egress for residents affected or to be affected by any road widening projects implemented, being implemented or to be planned for the city.
The resolution authored by Councilor Peter Fianza stated that a number of road widening projects have been noted to be underway in several roads and streets in the city being implemented by the DPWH regional and district offices.
He added that affected by the said road widening projects are residences abutting the said thoroughfares and other interior homeowners whose means of ingress to and egress from their residences have been obstructed or otherwise closed forcing then to reportedly install temporary stairs that have encroached on canals, sidewalks and other parts of public easements causing environmental and aesthetic concerns.
According to the resolution, before the implementation of the road widening projects, the means of ingress and egress of residences should be considered, maintained and respected even in common or in a limited way by the concerned agencies in charge of the implementation of the said projects.
Pursuant to Section 3 of Republic Act (RA) No. 2000 entitled Limited Access Highway Act, the resolution stipulated that the DPWH is authorized to plan, designate, establish, regulate, vacate, alter, improve, maintain and provide limited access facilities for public use wherever it is of the opinion of the traffic conditions, present or future, will justify such special facilities: provided, that within provinces, cities and towns, the establishment of such limited access facilities in so far as they affect provincial, city or municipal streets and plazas shall have the consent of the provincial board, city or municipal council as the case may be.
The resolution added that under Section of the aforesaid Act, no person shall have any right of ingress or egress to, from or across limited access facilities to or from abutting lands, except at such designated points at which access may be permitted, upon such terms and conditions as may be specified from time to time.
The resolution claimed numerous residents in the city had been complaining about the failure of the DPWH to provide them access facilities to and from their residences during the implementation of various road infrastructure projects ranging from road widening projects, re-blocking of major road networks, construction, rehabilitation and upgrading of drainage systems around the city among others that result to their being late in their work, classes and other business transactions inside and outside the city.
Worst, the infrastructure projects are being implemented without the proper coordination with the local government that often catch the people by surprise, aside from the serious delays in the completion of the infrastructure projects that let the public to bear the burden of looking how to be able to go to and from their residences.
By Dexter A. See
