(Veejay Villafranca / Bloomberg / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
DILG officer-in-charge (OIC) Bernardo C. Florece, Jr. said LGU deficiencies will be pointed out during the road-clearing validation for them to make he necessary revisions at the soonest time possible. But he assured fairness during the validation process.
“One of the strategies that we will adopt is that once a road is cleared by the LGU, a contract is drawn up and signed by the barangay captain who then is now responsible for maintaining the cleared roads. There will also be an exit conference with the mayor so that he is advised of the results of the validation,” he said.
DILG Undersecretary and spokesperson Jonathan Malaya (PCOO / MANILA BULLETIN)
DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said that the one week reprieve now set on January 22 was made by the agency after the LGUs appealed an extension for them to comply with their road clearing operation duties.
With the weeklong extension, Malaya said that the DILG has now set the validation date to January 25.
“We extended the deadline for RCO 2.0 because these are extraordinary times; we are in a pandemic and LGUs have a lot on their plate. We understand the request so the Department granted it,” Malaya said.
Last year, the DILG announced the resumption of RCO 2.0 on November 16, 2020, giving the LGUs 60 days to comply with President Duterte’s directive to rid streets of illegal obstructions and ‘to return roads and major thoroughfares to the people.’’