DPWH launches coffee table book on Arroyo

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) yesterday launched a coffee table book titled “Joyride – More Than Roads and Bridges,” which shows the infrastructure gains of the Arroyo administration.

Public Works Secretary Victor Domingo personally gave President Arroyo a copy of the book when she made a quick visit to the DPWH office in South Harbor, Manila at around 3 p.m. yesterday for the agency’s 112th anniversary.           

Mrs. Arroyo stayed for only 10 minutes and shook hands with the employees but did not give a speech. The 123-page book does not have a photograph of the President, even on its cover, and instead shows bridges, roads, and mass transport systems.                                    

Domingo said Mrs. Arroyo’s picture is not needed in the book because her infrastructure projects will speak for her accomplishments.                                                             

“When you go to Singapore you don’t see a monument of (Prime Minister) Lee Kuan Yew. Singapore is the monument of Lee Kuan Yew,” he said.                                                      

The Arroyo administration prides itself in improving rural infrastructure to advance trade and tourism by making inter-island transport easier. In 2009, the tourist arrivals reached 9.2 million.  Domingo claimed Mrs. Arroyo’s accomplishments surpassed those of former Presidents Joseph Estrada, Fidel Ramos and Corazon Aquino.                                               

DPWH data showed that infrastructure building under the Arroyo administration surpassed those of the three administrations combined by 15,000 kilometers of roads and 25,000 meters of bridges.

Domingo said presenting Mrs. Arroyo’s success in infrastructure would “create a standard of performance for the incoming presidents” and encourage the people to “pay their taxes willingly and honestly.”

From 2001 to 2009, the government has constructed and rehabilitated 164 ports, 373 municipal ports, and completed 47 fishery infrastructures.                                                         

The administration also linked major islands through the Strong Republic Nautical Highway Roll-on Roll-off project. The government completed 15,675 kilometers of farm-to-market roads, 9,942 regular flood control projects, and 289,944 lineal meters of bridges.

With the construction of new roads and bridges, tourist spots in the country are now accessible via the following routes: Chocolate Hills in Bohol through the Bohol Circumferential Road; Banawe Rice Terraces through the Halsema Highway; Pangasinan Falls in Busay, Ugsad, through the San Jose-Lope de Vega Road in Samar; Laiya Beach in Batangas through the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR); Underground River in Palawan through the El Nido-BATARAZA-Rio Tuba Road; and the Siargao Surf Paradise through the Maharlika Highway on Eastern Nautical Highway.

The DPWH has also completed repairing the Bridge of Promise in Batangas and the Bued Bridge in Ilocos Norte that were destroyed by typhoons “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” last year. In his anniversary address, Domingo thanked the agency personnel for their cooperation during the reconstruction work in the aftermath of the typhoons.                                      

“It has been a fruitful term even if it is for a fleeting moment,” he said. Once his term ends, Domingo, 70, would vacation in his province in Leyte. He will also undergo radiation treatment for his stage 2 prostate cancer.