The release of the funds was upon the recommendation of Public Works and Highways Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane who saw the need to complete unfinished work on the 88-kilometer stretch from this mountain resort city to Mount Data, Bauko, Mountain Province.

This would save the President from embarrassment when it will be inaugurated, it was learned.

Engineer Mariano R. Alquisa, Cordillera director of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), said that the projects funded with funds released by the President had been bided out and ready to be implemented. The rehab work is intended to correct the defects in the foreign-funded project before it will be turned over to the Philippine government.

Alquiza said that the P50 million for Phase I of the project is over and above the P323 million released by the government on a staggered basis to pursue the completion of Phase II of the rehabilitation work on the 50-kilometer stretch from Mount Data, Bauko, to Bontoc, Mountain Province.

The full rehabilitation of the Halsema Highway is one of Arroyo’s flagship projects which are intended to spur economic activities and tourism potentials in the different parts of the Cordillera Region.

Engineer Daniel Domingo, DPWH assistant regional director for construction for the Cordillera, said that P25 million will be utilized to remove and replace defective work on the Benguet side of the highway. It will also be used patch up cracks on the concrete pavements.

However, Domingo said that DPWH is still conducting a feasibility study on the measures to be undertaken to solve the problem caused by the sinking of the road in Sinipsip, Buguias, Benguet. This is an integral part of the project but the work is to be done on a staggered basis, he also said.

Engineer Roy Manao, DPWH assistant regional director for maintenance for the Cordillera, said that the remaining P25 million of the fund is earmarked for the improvement of the drainage system alongside the newly rehabilitated road to ensure that the concrete pavement and the slopes will be protected from runoff water.

Manao said the drainage system is vital component of road projects because this serves as buffer and protective structures to ensure that the concrete pavement and slope protection walls of the highway will last.

The newly rehabilitated Phase I of the road project has reduced travel time from Baguio City to Buguias, Benguet from five to three hours.