Cebu Province To Receive P56M From ‘Kalsada’ Program

For practicing good governance, the Cebu Province is awarded with more than P56 million for upgrading, developing and rehabilitation of its provincial roads.

Cebu was among the 73 out of 81 provinces selected in the KALSADA program of the Department of Management and Budget (DBM), which earmarked P6.5 billion for road rehabilitation in the 2016 P3-trillion national budget.

The province’s engineering office has chosen the road from Barangay Dakit, Bogo City to Barangay, NipaCayaan Tabogon in northern Cebu as the beneficiary of the program.

A feasibility study of the Provincial Planning and Development Office shows that the Bogo-Tabogon beltway is among the busiest lanes in the province, serving as link to numerous businesses and tourist spots in the north.

The budget for the road upgrade can reach over P80 million since the province will have to provide a counter fund of at least P24 million required by the program.

According to the DBM website, provinces were selected based on their compliance with the Department of Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) Seal of Good Financial Housekeeping and submission to the DBM of their Local Public Financial Management Assessment Report.

According to DBM Secretary Florencio Abad, KALSADA, a Filipino acronym for “Konkreto at AyosnaLansangan at DaanTungo sa PangkalahatangKaunlaran”, is an innovative devolution program that aims to institutionalize good governance by enabling and shepherding local government units on Local Road Management.

“The program focuses on the rehabilitation and upgrading of provincial roads and the transfer of these road assets permanently to the provincial government, which will maintain them. The program will also develop the Provincial Road Network Development Plan (PRNDP) for each province and promote the use of an online open data portal as a mechanism for monitoring and evaluation of provincial roads,” the DBM said.

By Kelvin Canizares