Agencies, firms told to submit schedule of works

BAGUIO CITY – (10 February 2021) – The City Council, during last Monday’s regular session, urged the Department of Public works and Highways (DPWH), the Department of information and Communication Technology (DICT), the Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO), the Baguio Water District (BWD), and all telecommunication companies and cable or internet service providers in the city to submit all their plans and schedule and programs of work to the City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) a year in advance for proper coordination with the local government.

In a resolution, local legislators stated that it is vital that coordination between the CPDO and the various agencies, offices, and departments must be attained by the latter submitting their plans, schedule or programs of work to the aforesaid office a year before they are implemented for proper coordination among other related purposes.

The body added that the same is intended to mitigate the supposed inconveniences being felt by the public when there will be simultaneous implementation of programmed projects in the different parts of the city as part of the government’s efforts to improve the delivery of basic services and for private companies to also elevate their services to greater heights with the advancement of technology.

The council anchored its action on Section 5, Article 2 of the Philippine Constitution guarantees that the maintenance of peace and order, the protection of life, liberty, and property and promotion of the general welfare are essential for the enjoyment by all the people of the blessings of democracy.

According to the council, among the functions of the CPDO is monitor and evaluate the implementation of the different programs, projects and activities in the local government unit.

The council stipulated that there are numerous pieces of work being done in the city daily where the same involve road improvement projects, water lines, electrical lines, sewage and storm drainage, telecommunication and internet projects among others and more often than not, the said projects are being done without the constituents being informed about them before hand for them to be able to prepare for any inconvenience that will be caused by the aforesaid projects.

As a result, the council asserted that the city residents encounter inconveniences such as diggings along roads and highways, excavation of slope protection walls, relocation of electric and cable poles and lines among others.

The body emphasized that proper coordination between the concerned agencies, offices and departments with the local government through the CPDO is needed to ensure that residents will not be unnecessarily inconvenienced by the simultaneous implementation of the programmed projects and activities.

The submission of the plans to the CPDO will facilitate the issuance of locational clearance, coordination among agencies and corporations where the same will lessen diggings on roads and highways so as not to contribute in the efforts of government to lessen the burden of the public from being inconvenienced by such projects being simultaneously implemented by the responsible offices assigned to prosecute the same. – Dexter A. See