President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos, Jr. vowed for an immediate repair of bridges and roads to ensure continuous delivery of basic services and livelihood, and to be able to return to normalcy.
“Tiningnan namin kung ano ‘yung mga nasira, iyong mga tulay, at gagawin namin kaagad lahat para maibalik. Magamit man lang, para man lang — para naman matuloy ang pag-deliver, matuloy ang hanapbuhay, at makabalik na naman tayo sa normal bago tayo nagkabagyo ng ganito,” Marcos said during his visit to Paeng hit Antique province on Tuesday, November 8.
Marcos conducted an aerial inspection before he led the distribution of relief assistance to families who were affected by “Paeng” at the Old Provincial Capitol in San Jose town.
In a report during the situation briefing with the President, Department of Public Worksand Highways (DPWH) 6 director Nerie Bueno said that five roads and bridges in Western Visayas remain impassable to all types of vehicles, including the Paliwan Bridge, Igmataning Bridge and Pis-anan Road in the province of Antique.
The other bridge and road that are still not passable are Oyungan Bridge in Miag-ao and Guimbal-Igbaras-Tubungan-Leon Road in Brgy. Nito-an, Guimbal, all in Iloilo province.
Bueno said measures are being undertaken at Oyungan Bridge which is along Iloilo-Antique Road such as the installation of 45-lineal meter bailey bridge.
Currently, the travelling public cross the bridge on foot and there are vehicles waiting on the other side to transport them to their destinations in the province of Antique.
There is also a local road that serves as an alternate route for those who have vehicles.
For Paliwan Bridge, according to Bueno, there is no available route as they undertake remedial measures, however, a footbridge was built to ensure that people can cross the river.
wo spans and a pier foundation of the bridge were damaged and its concrete revetment on both upstream and downstream collapsed.
Bueno said they are considering the rechanneling of the river as construction of a bailey bridge is not structurally stable.
All over the region, she said “Paeng” damaged 119 infrastructures including 68 roads, 41 bridges and 10 flood control projects.
