Chatto: Bohol biz returning to normalcy

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — After the Emergency Restoration System undertaken on the initial days of December, businesses started resuming operations, one after the other, amid power supply rationing and power interruptions getting shorter from an hour and a half to only 20 minutes recently.

Governor Edgar Chatto described the business situation now is a lot better than the first two weeks after typhoon Yolanda when power was brought down to a crisis situation and crippled water supply, prompting the exodus of some Boholanos to neighboring provinces.

As of now, Chatto said business operations, especially tourism, gradually returned to normal and the travel around province is also now possible through the usual circumferential road. Resorts and other accommodation businesses have started getting back tourist arrivals, he said.

The bridges and slip roads damaged by the 7.2-magnitude earthquake on Oct. 15 have been reconstructed and repaired and, what is now being attended to are the lateral roads, since the reconstruction and repair of the damaged major roads and bridges have been completed already by government agencies.

The governor said the reconstruction and repair team prioritized the reconstruction of bridges and roads: Tagbuane Bridge in Alburquerque was completed first, then the Abatan Bridge, linking Maribojoc and Cortes towns, was reconstructed, and recently works on the Moalong Bridge in Loon town and the Desamparados and Tultogan bridges in Calape have been done.

The travel from Tagbilaran City to Tubigon, via Loon, has been restored since the past week, while the slip road in Getafe had been repaired and that travel to the eastern towns from Tagbilaran City is also possible now after the completion of the repair of the Tagbuane bridge in Alburquerque and the Clarin Bridge in Loay.

Chatto assured that the rehabilitation plan of Bohol is on toward a Bohol better than the time before the calamities. The plan will include restoration of destroyed centuries-old churches, such as those in Baclayon and Loboc. 

Chatto said he already talked with Bishop Leonardo Medroso and Provincial Planning and Development Office coordinator John Vistal about the inclusion in the plan the restoration of the churches that had been declared national cultural treasures. — (FREEMAN)