SABANGAN, Mountain Province – A P34-million evacuation center will soon rise in Barangay Data in this municipality.
Local officials on Thursday, Nov. 3, held the groundbreaking ceremony for the project funded by the 2022 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
The project is implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways-Mountain Province First District Engineering Office (DPWH-MPFDEO) and built by contractor E.T. Latawan Construction.
Mayor Marcial Lawilao Jr. here thanked the Office of the Civil Defense (OCD), DPWH, Rep. Maximo Dalog, Gov. Bonifacio Lacwasan Jr., the Sangguniang Bayan, and the Barangay Council of Data for making the project possible.
“We are gathered here today to actually reap the fruits of our consolidated efforts aimed to ensure that the best services shall be given to our constituents. The construction of this evacuation center is timely and will greatly help in our disaster response considering that in the past typhoons, we had evacuees who were temporarily sent to their relatives in the absence of an evacuation center,” Lawilao said.
Lawilao said the project was proposed in 2020 but was delayed due to some “unprecedented circumstances.”
But due to continuous reiteration and support of different agencies, the project was funded and included in the 2022 GAA, he added.
Dalog cited citizen Douglas Patiwacen for donating the lot for the facility and Lacwasan said the project is timely due to recent destructive typhoons and earthquakes.
When finished, the evacuation center will be the sixth in the province.