Owner to close road if not paid by December 2020

By Dolly Yasa

 

BACOLOD City – Businessman Cesar Ledesma, owner of the two-kilometer portion of the South Circumferential Road in Barangay Alijis here, said he plans to close his property to traffic unless he is paid by the government by end-2020.

Ledesma said the government has been using part of his land as a highway since 1972.

The property is a two-kilometer portion of the busy circumferential road from Emilia J. Garcia Elementary School area in Barangay Alijis going to the southern portion of Negros Occidental.

Ledesma said he already wrote Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark Villar about it.

Villar then referred him to the DPWH-Bacolod district engineering office.

“I already got the assurances of our local officials, not only about the highway that belongs to me, but also about a dilapidated access road east of the circumferential road where many community residents are using every day. It seems like all we got were empty promises,” Ledesma told reporters here.

“If Christmas time comes and nothing is done to the access road, then I might as well close down the two-kilometer portion of the circumferential road since it is mine and no government compensation was given to me since it was used as a highway in 1972,” he added.

Ledesma is calling on officials and the local DPWH and government offices “to fulfill what they have promised”.

“Every time we follow up about the access road and the highway, we are given assurances but nothing has been done until now,” he lamented.