DILG extends again road clearing operation to Feb. 15

January 24, 2021

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has extended again the deadline for the Road Clearing Operation 2.0 (RCO 2.0) to February 15.

Interior Undersecretary and spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said Saturday this is in consideration to the need of local government units (LGUs) to immediately prepare their local vaccination plans against COVID-19.

“The Department is fully cognizant of the urgency for LGUs to prepare their vaccination plans against COVID-19 that’s why the road clearing timeline is extended anew,” Malaya said.

“We need to give LGUs time to focus on their local vaccination plans so we are giving them more time to undertake their road-clearing operations,” he added.

However, Malaya said this will be the last extension they will allow.

He said the DILG’s validation of LGUs’ compliance has also been moved to March 2.

"The deadline of the submission of all consolidated validation reports from the DILG regional offices will be one week after the end of the validation period or on March 9, 2021. We will not allow any modification in the report after submission," Malaya said.

In order to ensure close coordination on the submission of reports, Malaya said DILG regional offices must designate one road clearing focal person whose names should be submitted to the DILG Central Office by February 2.

DILG Regional Offices (ROs) are also given until February 9 to submit to the DILG Central Office (CO) a directory of the members of all their validation teams (VTs) for each province, city, and municipality within their region.

For LGUs under General Community Quarantine (GCQ) with a required partial implementation of road clearing, VTs will select three to 10 local roads within the LGU and assess whether road obstructions exist along or within the entirety of the selected roads.

LGUs' compliance on the ban of tricycles on national highways shall also be checked.

Meanwhile, LGUs under Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) or Post-Quarantine Scenario will be validated according to their full implementation of road clearing operations.

Malaya said they are hoping for the LGUs full cooperation on the validation process.

“Within the validation period, LGUs shall submit reports detailing their compliance to the components of road clearing to the Validation Team. Strictly no report, no score,” he said.

The DILG also encouraged LGUs to submit to the VTs as attachments to the reports, photographs, videos, presentations, reports, and other means of verifications (MOVs) that support their compliance. Ella Dionisio/DMS