BAGUIO CITY – All national roads and bridges in the Cordillera region are now passable after the floods, landslides, and rockslides brought by the Typhoon Carina-enhanced monsoon rains last week.
The Department of Public Works and Highways, in posts on its social media pages on Thursday, said even the historic Kennon Road leading to this city is passable, although only for light vehicles.
It also said that “a one-way traffic scheme is being implemented at Camp 6, Tuba, Benguet due to an ongoing project.”
“With safety being our top priority, we therefore advise motorists to exercise extreme caution while passing through recently cleared sections of the road,” it said.
Alternative routes for heavy vehicles are the Marcos Highway and the Asin-Nangalisan-San Pascual-La Union Boundary Road, aside from the Naguilian Road via the municipality of Bauang in La Union.
The Nueva Vizcaya-Ifugao-Mt. Province Boundary along View Point, Banaue in Ifugao is one-lane passable.
After the onslaught of Carina last week, the department immediately dispatched all resources and road-clearing teams to ensure that roads were open to allow the passage of people and goods, especially the highly perishable vegetables, en route to other provinces.
Private contractors used their equipment to help the DPWH and volunteers with the road-clearing operations.
Local government units also dispatched their Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Councils (DRRMC) to help ensure the accessibility of the provincial and municipal roads.
Even community members helped clear small landslides and fallen trees blocking the roads the Filipino “bayanihan” and the Cordillera “Binnadang” way.
“There is an unwritten bayanihan spirit between us and the government, even the community members during calamities,” Arnel Peil, president of the Contractors Association of the Philippines in the Cordillera, said in an earlier press conference.
“We are simply told of the situation and we move because we also have a responsibility to our fellowmen, not just to our businesses and companies.” (PNA)
