The administration of Langogan Elementary School (LES) has requested that the road construction connecting Sitio Kapakuan to the school be continued and completed as soon as possible.
According to City Councilor Luis M. Marcaida, III, school officials informed him that children from Sitio Kapakuan must cross the river to get to the elementary school, which puts them in danger.
The school is in the outlying barangay of Langogan, which is located north of Puerto Princesa.
Marcaida stated that the legislatively approved construction was supposedly footbridges to help children cross the river.
“If my memory serves me right, during our past session, we already approved a resolution requesting that the projects that we are going to allow to be constructed in areas where there are rivers are supposedly footbridges or structures that will allow children to cross the river,” Marcaida said.
Marcaida further stated that according to the school principal’s request, the road construction must continue and that the footbridge construction must be postponed for the time being.
“So the request of the school principal or the TIC right now, [in the person of] Grace Ballarta is that we forgo for the time being, the footbridge, and their request is that we continuity of the road because if the road will be constructed completely, they will no longer be going to cross the river,” Marcaida said.
“According to the TIC, they will no longer need the footbridge if the road is completed,” he added.
Meanwhile, Councilor Modesto V. Rodriguez, II explained that the city government’s eight-kilometer road construction project in the area was approved in the previous city council for P25 million and is scheduled for bidding this year.
“Ngayon, ‘yong project na yun ay due for bidding na. Tinatapos na lang yung program of works at hindi na ito gagawing by administration. Kung hindi ako nagkakamali nasa eight kilometers yung kalsada na yan. According to the City Engineering Office, this year ang schedule nila na i-bid yung project na yan. So we need not request to include this in the AIP,” Rodriguez clarified.
Furthermore, Vice Mayor Maria Nancy M. Socrates moved to request from the City Engineering Office the construction of a small access road for the children so that they do not have to cross the river to get to school.
However, because the access road is still closed, they must cross the river safely.
“In the meantime, we have to make sure that the children are able to cross the river and get to school in one piece and get back home. Maybe we can just make a resolution requesting the City Engineering to provide a small access road for the children so that they can pass by not crossing the river, just to address the problems of the school children,” Socrates said