Road improvements accessible to a favorite destination among local and foreign tourists in Southern Leyte have been completed by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Saint Bernard Town.
One of the completed projects is the P9.6 million worth of road improvement that leads to the Southern Leyte Bird Sanctuary and Mangrove Area as a kilometer-long of uneven and sandy road was turned into a two-lane concrete road with width of 6.10 meters.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) named the Southern Leyte’s Bird Sanctuary as one of the bird sites in Eastern Visayas where the presence of diverse and various species of migratory birds has been documented.
Tourists can find the Philippine Duck, the Little Egret, Greenshark, as well as Purple Heron in the sanctuary.
Another completed project by the department is the P9.8 million access road going to the Guinsaugon Lake, a popular destination among mountaineers in the Eastern Visayas. The project covers the concreting of 0.667-lane kilometers of a gravel road.
Both projects were implemented by the DPWH Southern-Leyte District Engineering Office (DPWH-SLDEO).
DPWH Secretary Roger Mercado said the tourism road projects were identified, and eventually implemented in convergence with the Department of Tourism in hopes of encouraging more tourists to less developed areas.
“The newly-paved roads are expected to not only bring more tourists in the area but also to make it easier for the DENR and local government units to visit the bird sanctuary in an effort to preserve the migratory birds' natural habitats,” Mercado said.
The construction of tourism access roads is part of President Duterte's zero to 10-point economic strategy program that aims to promote both rural and value chain development in order to boost agricultural and rural enterprise productivity, and rural tourism.
Meanwhile, the DPWH has also finished a 555-meter road concreting project in the Municipality of Salug, Zamboanga del Norte that serves both farmers and residents.
The P10-million road concreting project involves earthworks, base preparation, drainage and slope protection structures, and paving of portland cement concrete.
The implementing unit was the DPWH-Zamboanga del Norte 2nd District Engineering Office along Balakan-Calucap Road that benefits a population of 2,219 with livelihoods that revolve mainly on farming.