ZAMBOANGA CITY -- The wooden stilt bridge should be removed and replaced with a concrete footbridge for the safety of the beneficiaries of the Zamboanga City Roadmap to Recovery and Reconstruction (Z3R) housing projects, 1st District Rep. Celso Lobregat said Friday.
“Replace the wooden bridges with (a) concrete footbridge,” Lobregat said, noting that the wooden stilt bridge would eventually “wear and tear” over time.
“We are after the safety of the victims of the 2013 Zamboanga siege,” he added.
Lobregat was among the 15 people who fell into waist-deep murky sea water on April 26 as the wooden stilt bridge they were passing collapsed.
The group, led by Negros Occidental 3rd District Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, chair of the House of Representatives’ committee on housing and urban development, was on its way to inspect a housing project in Sitio Hong Kong, Barangay Rio Hondo, this city when the incident occurred.
With the group were Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar, NHA district manager Al-Kwharizmi Indanan, and NHA regional director Alfonso Borlagdan, as well as staff and security personnel.
Lobregat estimated the cost for the construction of the 1.5 lm width concrete footbridge at PHP34,362,560 per lm, or a total PHP580,010,636 for the entire length of 15.4 km.
For the 2.4 lm width, Lobregat estimated the cost at PHP38,192,850 per lm or a total of PHP367,603,126 for the entire length of 9.6 km.
The lawmaker said the over-all cost for the construction of the two classification of concrete footbridge is PHP897,613,762 based on the estimated cost per l.m.
He said the construction of the concrete footbridge should be shouldered by the NHA since the agency has a budget of its own. (PNA)
