The Second District Engineering Office of the Department of Public Works and Highways in Cagayan de Oro holds a townhall meeting in Barangay Nazareth, July 4, 2025. PIA 10 photo
TheMonitorMindanaoToday.com | ROW issues delaying projects, says DPWH
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Other than availability of funds, one of the reasons for delayed infrastructure projects has been the intricacies of acquiring the right-of-way (ROW): the property required for the construction of public roads, bridges, and other structures.
On Friday, July 4, the ROW—also called easement–was one of the issues raised during a Townhall Meeting at Barangay Nazareth gymnasium under the auspice of the Department of Public Works and Highways-Cagayan de Oro District 2 Engineering Office.
“Our priority is to increase the connectivity,” said District Engineer Jan Paul Lisondra, admitting the fact that widening local roads, much more apparent in Nazareth—the city’s first subdivision where the road network was laid out in the 60s—would be exacting.
For lawyer Regine Beatrice Rodriguez, the chairperson of Barangay Nazareth who doubles as the chief-of-staff of the Office of Rep. Rufus Rodriguez–her father, she sees a “mismatch” between the legislation on setback and the implementation of road widening, particularly in her village.
Regine said her father–who is now a septuagenarian, grew up in Nazareth saw the same width and length of streets back in the 60s and 70s, thus implementing the law on setback now would mean negotiating with hundreds, if not thousands of landowners, other than the long process of expropriation, if necessary.
But she expressed appreciation, in the presence of her constituents in the forum, that some residents offered a portion of their lands, out of deep sense of civic duty, to be used as sidewalks or setbacks from barangay roads.
But the old and two-lane streets is Tomas Saco may be an exception—it starts off at Barangay 1, traverses the western side of Barangay Nazareth and eventually exits to the South Diversion Road in Barangay Macasandig, and then toward Barangay Indahag.
On the suggestion that Tomas Saco be converted into a national road—so that it can be widened and funded from DPWH including budget for just compensation of affected land owners, here’s what the district engineer said: “One of the criteria is that the local road must be able to connect two national roads.”
For now, Tomas Saco it is just meters away from Don Apolinar Velez Street which is a national road, but the South Diversion Road—relatively new–has yet to be declared a national road.
Lisondra said that instead of road widening, they are opening new or extending old roads, one of these is the 32nd street that would soon goes uphill and downhill, enabling residents access and would also ease traffic flow. But even this road project requires a lot of ROW negotiations.
Engineer Jesse Pelińo, who heads the construction section of the DPWH CDO D2EO, reported that the status of two “ongoing projects” in Barangay Nazareth are “suspended” due to right-of-way issues: A P5-million construction of 109.77-meter stretch of long road with drainage, and P25-million construction of 450-meter-long road.
The target dates for completion of these that were awarded to 4C Builders Construction Supply for the P5-M project, and the AT Builders and General Merchandise for the P25-M project were not indicated in the report.
Another ongoing road with drainage construction project, consisting of four phases with a combined length of 492.64 meters involving upper portions of Nazareth, particularly 25th Street and mostly that of 32nd Street, would require demolitions of houses and negotiations for ROW and expropriation. Initial funding for this is P20 million.
Also presented was the project profile of an ongoing P20-million construction of a multipurpose structure involving three buildings: Bureau of Fire Protection, Mirror Building, and Lupon and Storage (requiring repairs).
Pelińo’s report included four projects, all in Nazareth: rehabilitation of the Barangay Gym P10 million; 227-meter road-pathway project P5 million; and installation of 77 streetlights most of these in 20th, 28th, and 29th streets as well as in 3rd, 10th, 15th, 21st, and 31st streets including Ramonal Village.
Another completed project is a four-classroom, two-level school-building project worth P11.451 million at South City Central School that was contracted to Four L Builders and Construction Supply in 2023. It is situated on the right-side at the entrance gate of SCCS along 21st and 6th street of Barangay Nazareth. (Uriel Quilinguing)
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