DILG files charges against Ginatilan, 9 other LGUs for road clearing failure
Ginatilan town in southern Cebu shows DILG that they have complied with the road clearing directive of the president. These photographs are among the attachments of the municipality’s Nov. 25 , 2019 reply to the DILG’ show cause order after they were given a failed mark last September. | Photo from Ginatilan Mayor Michael Dean Cinco
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has filed administrative charges against Ginatilan town in Cebu and nine other local government units (LGUs) in the country for failure to comply with the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte to clear the public roads of obstructions.
In a statement released on Friday afternoon, January 3, 2020, the DILG said that those facing administrative charges for non compliance of the DILG order were the towns of Guinsiliban in Camiguin, Pili in Camarines Sur, Ginatilan in Cebu, Sagay in Camiguin, Manticao in Misamis Oriental, Pagsanjan in Samar, Caraga in Davao Oriental, Aurora in Zamboanga Del Sur, Baco in Oriental Mindoro, and Lapuyan in Zamboanga del Sur.
These towns consistently failed the DILG’s evaluations on their road clearing work, the statement said.
“Zero road clearing talaga nila, failed lahat. Less than 50 percent yung score so kung pasang-awa is 70, eto 50. Responsibilidad po nila mapanatili na malinis ang kalsada, sidewalks para madaanan ng tao at sasakyan. Isa rin ito sa cause ng traffic,” said DILG Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III.
(They have zero clearings; failed everything. The passing score is 70, but their scores is 50. It is their responsibility to maintain the roads, sidewalks so these can be accessible to people and cars. Obstructions are one cause of traffic.)
Out of the 1, 534 cities and municipalities, 101 failed during the assessment, 15 of which earned the lowest score, the statement said.
Densing said they will also file cases against the remaining five LGUs who failed once the documentation will be completed.
Although he did not specify the cities and municipalities, Densing said these are from Cebu, Abra, Davao del Norte, Samar, and Benguet.
“As promised, those who did not follow the Presidential directive on road clearing returning the public roads and public sidewalks to public use, yan kasohan na namin (we will file charges),” he said.
Densing said that the road clearing initiative will not end with the filing of cases but is something the LGUs will be continuously doing.
DILG in Central Visayas Director Leocadio Trovela, in the same statement, said the Duterte administration envisions to sustain the road clearing effort by holding quarterly evaluation at the barangay level.
In Central Visayas, the compliance rate of all LGUs reached 91 percent.
All the highly urbanized cities of Cebu, Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue are compliant to the road clearing order. However, 12 out of the 113 cities and municipalities in Central Visayas, unfortunately, fell short of the compliance rate based on the final review on the results of the validation efforts, the DILG said./elb
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