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DILG: Post-Bohol earthquake rehab in Central Visayas almost complete

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Philippines
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Govt. Philippines
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More than three years after the 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Central Visayas, the rehabilitation of damaged key government infrastructures under the Bohol Earthquake Assistance (BEA) project of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is almost complete.

The BEA Project covers the reconstruction, repair and rehabilitation of various barangay facilities (barangay hall, day care center, barangay health station), bridges, civic centers, markets, municipal buildings, and water supply systems in the provinces of Bohol and Cebu, two of the severely affected provinces during the 7.2 magnitude earthquake last October 15, 2013.

DILG Secretary Ismael D. Sueno said that of the 1,076 projects under the BEA program, 908 or 84.39% are completed, 132 (12.27%) are on-going implementation, 31 (2.88%) are on procurement stage, 2 (0.19%) have approved initial document, and the remaining 3 (0.28%) are under preparation of initial document.

“I am happy to note that the lives of our kababayans mostly in Bohol and some in Cebu are now back to normal with the rehabilitated key government facilities in the respective localities,” Sueno said.

The DILG Secretary said that the Department prioritized the rehabilitation of damaged key local government facilities so as not to disrupt the delivery of fast and efficient services to the public.

The BEA-DILG Project has an initial funding of PhP2.413 Billion for the repair/rehabilitation/reconstruction of partially and totally-damaged key government facilities with due consideration to Build Back Better (BBB) designs for disaster resilient public infrastructure. It covers 52 municipalities and cities in Bohol and Cebu as well as the Province of Bohol.

Sueno said that provincial governments had their hands full in carrying out several BEA projects almost all at the same time, considering that they had to handle an average of 24 to as much as 75 projects like in the case of Buenavista, Bohol.

He added that added that big ticket projects costing P5 million and above took longer to complete because of the magnitude of needed works to restore the building to its previous form or even better. The preparation of initial documents take around 2-6 months to complete depending on the scope of the project. The procurement process takes about 2-3 months to finish and the actual project implementation ranges from 6 months to three years.

It is hoped that by the end of 2017, all BEA projects shall have been completed.