Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Acting Secretary Roger Mercado is keen to make the most of his remaining few days as a member of the Cabinet of President Rodrigo Duterte administration.
Mercado declared that although time is running out for the term of President Duterte, his duty to the public is far from over, and will not take a pause in fulfilling the enormous job at DPWH of providing the Filipino people with quality infrastructure. Duterte’s term ends on June 30.
“Although time is running out for the term of President Duterte, his duty to the public is far from over and will not take a pause in fulfilling the enormous job at DPWH of providing the Filipino people with quality infrastructure.”
The public works chief together with Undersecretary and Build Build Build Chief Implementer Emil Sadain inspected the ongoing Panguil Bay Bridge Project, listed among the 119 infrastructure flagship projects under the “Build, Build, Build” Program.
The two officials were joined in the project visit by Undersecretary for Mindanao Operations Eugenio Pipo Jr.; Lanao Del Norte Governor Imelda Quibranza-Dimaporo and Congressman Abdullah Dimaporo; Assistant Secretaries Ador Canlas, Antonio Molano Jr., Wilfredo Mallari, Mel John Verzosa and Rolito Manalo; and Project Director Sharif Madsmo Hasim and Project Manager Teresita Bauzon of DPWH Unified Project Management Office (UPMO) Roads Management Cluster 2 (Multilateral).
When finished, the 3.17-kilometer two-way two-lane Panguil Bay Bridge, which will link Tangub City in Misamis Occidental with the Municipality of Tubod in Lanao del Norte, will be Mindanao’s longest bridge.
With funding assistance from South Korea, the ₱7.37 Billion project is being implemented by the DPWH UPMO Operations.
“The project has achieved 51.4 percent completion, recovering from the delays in the delivery of equipment and materials.”
Sadain, in charge of DPWH UPMO Operations, reported in his briefing that the project has achieved 51.4 percent completion, recovering from the delays in the delivery of equipment and materials in 2020 brought about by the unprecedented impacts of the global coronavirus pandemic.
“I am delighted that the work is now progressing at a faster pace using state-of-the-art engineering equipment and adopting modern technology in bridge construction,” Mercado noted.
The bridge project that has gained the full support of the Provincial Government of Lanao Del Norte and Misamis Occidental has an established Multi-Partite Monitoring Team to properly monitor and successfully implement the Panguil Bay Bridge Project.
Targeted for completion by December 2023, the Panguil Bay Bridge Project will make commuting easier as it will only take 7 minutes from Tangub to Tubod compared to 1 hour and 30 minutes via Roll-On Roll-Off vessels operating from Ozamis to Mucas or land travel through Panguil Bay road of 2 to 2 and a half hours over a total length of 100 kilometers.
