DOTr appoints new BRT project head

CEBU, Philippines — The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has appointed a new Cebu Bus Rapid Transit Project Implementation Unit head, after Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has approved the one-year study leave of lawyer Rafael Christopher Yap.

“Rest assured that I will make myself available to my successor for any assistance he or she may require in order to implement the Cebu BRT project to completion,” Yap said.

Former BRT assistant project manager Engr. Siegfred Landoy of DOTr is the new BRT project manager starting April 10.

“It is my honor to inform you that I have been accepted as a candidate for the Project for Human Resource Development Scholarship by Japanese Grant Aid (JDS) 2018 to 2019,” said Yap in his letter to Osmeña dated April 3.

The following day, Osmeña approved Yap’s request.  Yap will be taking a one-year master’s degree in public policy at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo, Japan.

City Administrator Nigel Paul Villarete, also an urban planner, said he met Landoy before.

“He’s (Landoy’s) well-versed in project management, so there shouldn’t be any problem (in implementing the BRT project). We hope he will immediately address the pending deliverables of the DOTr, especially that there will be another Joint WB-AFD mission soon (usually mid-year),” Villarete told The FREEMAN.

Villarete believed that the new project manager of the BRT project will not cause further delay in the implementation of the project considering that the Project Implementation Unit is not the office that’s causing the delay.

He said he is hoping that DOTr will take action on the recommendations of the Commission on Audit which cited that the country is losing P14 million in a form of commitment fees from 2015 to 2017 because of the delay in the implementation of the project.

Aside from the commitment fees, COA also cited that the transfer of procurement of Technical Support Consultant from the DOTr to the procurement service of Department of Budget and Management, despite having its own Bids and Awards Committee, caused further overall delay in the implementation of the BRT project.

COA said that this delay is also causing P2.952 million administrative cost.

Few of the deliverables of DOTr include the procurement process for consulting services, various technical individual consultants or specialist and civil works, among others. —/GAN (FREEMAN)