- CHERYL G. CRUZ
Negros Occidental 1st District Rep. Gerardo Valmayor Jr. is pushing for the creation of the 5th District Engineering Office (DEO) that will serve the cities of San Carlos and Escalante, and the municipalities of Toboso, Calatrava, and Salvador Benedicto.
In House Bill 1043 now pending with the House Committee on Public Works and Highways since July 27, Valmayor noted that the province currently has 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th DEOs, as well as the Bacolod DEO out of the six congressional districts.
He said that the 1st DEO is serving towns and cities spread in three congressional districts, including San Carlos, Escalante, Toboso, Calatrava, and Salvador Benedicto in the First District; Manapla, Cadiz, and Sagay in the Second District; and E.B. Magalona, Murcia, Silay, Talisay, and Victorias in the Third District.
It stretches a total road length of 434.213km. “With such wide coverage of LGUs under its area of responsibility, the 1st DEO is confronted with so many concerns in the implementation of various programs and projects across the three congressional districts,” the proposal said.
Valmayor also noted that a sub-DEO, called the Negros Occidental 5th DEO, was created from the existing 1st DEO of Negros Occidental, through Department of Public Works and Highways Department Order No. 40, series of 2020, signed by then secretary and now Senator Mark Villar in May 2020.
The sub-DEO will serve the five LGUs in the First District, with a population of 375,006 as per the 2015 census, and a land area of 1,436.65 square kilometer, the DO said.
On Nov. 23, 2021, DPWH acting secretary Roger Mercado signed DO 101-2021, or the supplemental guidelines/clarification on the creation of the Negros Occidental Sub-DEO, from the existing 1st DEO.
Mercado’s order supplements Villar’s DO, “in anticipation of the transfer of the implementation of the DPWH Infrastructure Program…to include the authority of the Sub-District Engineering Office (Negros Occidental 5th DEO) to implement Infrastructure Programs of the DPWH-Regional Office VI as indicated in the General Appropriations Act of CY 2021 and prior years, including funds that may be later identified, regardless of the source”. Valmayor is proposing that the sub-DEO be converted into a regular one, and named as 5th DEO of Negros Occidental./CGC
