FORT RAMON MAGSAYSAY – Workers are in double-time mode to complete the construction of the multimillion–peso military headquarters inside this vast reservation by December, a ranking public works officials said Wednesday.
“Kung maaari ay doblehin ang manpower para maayos kaagad natin ito,” said Engr. Ricardo Puno, chief of Nueva Ecija 2nd Engineering District.
Puno was referring to the P42.26-million two-storey headquarters of the Philippine Army’s 7th Infantry Division that was launched by Public Works andHighways Secretary Mark Villar last Feb. 28.
Puno said the construction was temporarily bumped off when the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine was imposed as a measure to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease.
But the construction work immediately resumed when the quarantine was downgraded by the inter-agency task force.
“Nung nagkaroon na ng GCQ (general community quarantine) ay tuloy-tuloy na yung paggawa,” Punosaid.
According to DPWH, the project was in support to the modernization program of the Department of National Defense and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
DPWH Region-3 director Roseller Tolentino said that a total of P273 million was allocated in the 2020 budget for various infrastructure facilities inside Fort Magsaysay, the largest military reservation in the Philippines, under the DND-DPWH Convergence Program on Strengthening and Expanding Military Readiness for National Security and Development otherwise known as Tatag ng Imprastraktura para sa Kapayapaan at Seguridad (TIKAS) Program aimed to improve military facilities, runways, and detachments
The convergence program also involves construction of a two-storey administration building worth P20million to provide safe and substantial facility that will enhance the operational readiness of the Light Reaction Regiment;, the construction of a 7.261-kilometer road from the Light Reaction Regiment/Special Forces camps leading to Molave Complex, with a total budget of P85 million; a new hangar for the Army Aviation Battalion, amounting to P65.44 million; a four-storey transient facility building at the Light Reaction Regiment costing P40 million; and barracks for the Special Forces Regiment (Airborne) enlisted personnel with an allocation of P20 million.
The TIKAS projects at Fort Magsaysay will be implemented by DPWH Nueva Ecija 2nd District Engineering Office.
The 7ID building is expected to be inaugurated before the year end, Puno said.
