BONTOC, Mountain Province – The provincial government ordered the temporary suspension of the implementation of its P15 million project within the Provincial Capital compound to pave the way for the province’s technical personnel to evaluate, review and assess the impact of the project to the state of the environment and its effect in addressing the parking problems in this capital town.
The decision to temporarily suspend the implementation project was the offshoot of the public consultation that was organized by the province to gather the inputs of concerned stakeholders in relation to the parking project for possible consideration in the final plans and programs of work.
“The action of provincial officials to suspend the project only shows that they are listening to the issues and concerns being raised against the project which will also be subject to review and assessment by the province’s technical personnel whether or not it will be possible to do so,” the source stressed.
The provincial government plans to put up a two-level parking structure in the garden between the legislative building and the stairs going to the plaza wherein the road level and the area below it will serve as parking area.
The sources, who requested anonymity for personal reasons, claimed that based on the assessment of experts, there are no structures or items of significant value in the area which will be affected by the implementation of the project contrary to the allegations of the critics that the area where the parking area will be built is part of the province’s heritage area.
According to the sources, while it is true that there is a noisy opposition against the project, there is also the so-called silent majority who opted to remain silent but they’re supportive of the project considering the absence of adequate parking areas to cater to the increasing volume of vehicles plying the narrow streets of the locality.
Earlier, the provincial government decided to schedule the conduct of the public consultation recently after receiving various petitions that questioned the implementation of the multi-million parking project which commenced construction late last month.
The sources challenged the critics of the parking project to provide concrete proposals on how to effectively and efficiently address the absence of adequate parking areas in the town to contribute in efforts to address the parking of vehicles along the narrow streets that contribute in the occurrence of traffic congestions.
The sources explained the provincial government embarked on the put up of the two-level parking area within the Provincial Capitol compound to help address the parking concerns of people transacting business not only with the province but also with other government agencies located in the said area.
The budget for the construction of the 2-level parking area was included in the annual budget and the annual investment plan of the provincial government that was passed upon by concerned government agencies.
The source claimed that the existing garden will not be displaced but instead it will be relocated to the side of the parking area to maximize the use of the available space in the project site. By HENT