LINGAYEN–Gov. Amado Espino Jr. has directed the province’s engineers to prioritize the repair of roads and construction of temporary bridges to restore easy access to and around the province.

“Not necessarily asphalting or cementing them but making them passable to commuters,” Espino said.

The governor also asked the district engineers to use whatever resources are available to them while procedures in extending assistance to calamity-hit areas are being threshed out by the Special National Public-Private Reconstruction Commission created by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In a meeting Thursday, Espino told the engineers that he is still unclear about the mandate and functions of the newly-created commission headed by Philippine Long Distance Co. chairman Manuel Pangilinan even after he talked to Budget Sec. Rolando Andaya and Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. regarding the extent of damage in Pangasinan.

“They told me to just follow in the meantime the “usual procedure” so that confused me further,” he said.

He said he is concerned that help may not come in time since funds in the last quarter of the year are already almost depleted.

Present in the meeting were engineers under the Department of Public Works and Highways as well as other agencies such as the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) regional office and allied offices like the Agno River Integrated Irrigation Project (ARIIP) and the Agno Flood Control Project.

It is estimated that 75 percent of the province was heavily devastated by Typhoon Pepeng last week.

Initial estimates put damages in the Agno Flood Control System for the breached/collapsed dikes along the more than 200 kilometer long Agno river at P308 million; P190 million by the National Irrigation Administration; P30 million for the communal irrigation system; P121 million on roads and P115.5 million on bridges by the Pangasinan Third Engineering District Office covering the fifth and sixth districts; P35 million on roads and P25 million on bridges by the Pangasinan Second Sub-district Engineering Office covering the third district; and P12 million by the Pangasinan Second District Engineering Office covering the second and fourth districts of the province; and P615 million on provincial, municipal and barangay roads, and bridges.#

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