United States government agencies in the Philippines

Media

Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: United States government agencies in the Philippines
Creator: Turner, F. C.
Language: English
Year: 1949
Rights
Fulltext: 124 AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March., 1949 Committee on Law ” ” Legislation — " Membership— ” Mining — ” Shipping — Secretary — T. Harrington — Messrs. Ross, Selph, Carrascoso & Janda Ross, Selph, Carrascoso & Janda Connell Bros. Co. (Phil.) Smith, Bell & Co., Ltd. Surigao Consolidated Mining Co., Inc. Royal Interocean Lines Smith, Bell & Co., Ltd. “The system of free, private, competitive enter prise is man’s best and only hope to keep alive his age-old dream of a world where he can work in free dom, live in peace and dignity with his fellows, and enjoy with them the good things which their com bined labors have produced.” You’ll sen6e something differ ent when your fingers touch the highly responsive keys. It’s Rhythm Touch ... to make your type writing easier. Your fingers will find comforting ease in the light ning key response. You’ll note better-balanced finger action .. . the free-and-easy rhythm of Underwood’s finest typewriter ... the popular choice of secretaries and executives. With Rhythm Touch . . . plus other new refine ments . . . you get all the time-tried famous Underwood features . . . they make typing easier. See this new Underwood Standard Typewriter... with Rhythm Touch ... NOW! TRACS AND COMMERCE BLDG, MANILA United States Government Agencies in the Philippines The U.S. Public Roads Administration in the Philippines By F. C. Turner, Division Engineer IN 1945 highway engineer officers from the Army and the Navy made an inventory of wartime dam age to the Philippine highway system. Their in ventory disclosed that of 1,741 permanent bridges 621 had been destroyed or badly damaged and that 3,000 of the 6,352 wooden bridges would have to be replaced, either because they had been destroyed or because of deterioration due to neglected maintenance. Equally serious, though not as spectacular as the bridge demolition, was the war’s effect upon the high way surfaces. The damage to the highway system was estimated at £55,250,000 based on about U/2 times pre-war costs. As a result of the study of the U.S. Army and Navy engineers and of others re presenting the various U.S. Government agencies in volved in the rebuilding of the Philippines, the Con gress of the United States approved the Philippine Rehabilitation Act of 1946. Prepared Paints, the kind that lasts, your best house paint vnhie. ask your DEALER! AMERICAN FACTORS(PMlUlNt , MARY EJACHRACH BLDG. 25TH ST. -^ORT AREA ■ TEL. Hotpoint Win” Over DZRH. let’s make it radios make tuning in ice treat on “Spell to a date every eight. Sunday night at Philproni March, 1949 AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 125 Under Title III, Section 302 of that Act, the Public Roads Administration was authorized, after consultation with the Philippine Government, to plan, design, restore, and build, in accordance with its usual contract procedures, such roads, essential streets, and bridges as might be necessary from the view point of the national defense and the economic reha bilitation and development of the Philippines. The Philippine Division headquarters was established in Manila during November, 1946. Funds for Fiscal Year 1947 were appropriated by Congress on July 23, 1946, and from this appro priation the State Department allocated P20,000,000 for highway rehabilitation and training in the United States of 10 Filipino engineers of the regularly em ployed staff of the Philippine Department of Public Works. This allocation was sufficient to permit the programming of 37 construction projects consisting of repair and replacement of 29 bridges, approxi mately 30 kilometers of concrete pavement, 54 kilo meters of intermediate type bituminous surfacing, and 50 kilometers of law-type bituminous surfacing. Funds for Fiscal Year 1948 appropriated on July 9, 1947, involved P24,750,000, bringing to P44,750,000 the total available for the rehabilitation of roads, streets, and bridges. For Fiscal Year 1949, the additional allocation as appropriated by Congress on June 3, 1948, brought the grand total to date to P78,250,000 available for the Philippine highway re habilitation program. Present tentative agreements contemplate that P80,000,000 of the P240,000,000 authorized for the rehabilitation of the Philippines under Sections 302 to 305, inclusive, of the Philippine Rehabilitation Act of 1946, will be expended for the road, street, and bridge program. In addition to these sums the Philippine Bureau of Public Works to this date has augmented the program with approximately P16,000,000 of its funds. So, slightly less than P100,000,000 has been set aside for the restoration of the Philippine high way system so far. To date approximately P76,000,000, of which P60,000,000 is United States funds, has been programmed or approved for expenditure on 262 projects, and an additional P25,000,000 will be pro grammed before March of the next calendar year. One might compare the number of projects men tioned here and the number of bridges that were des troyed by the war. It should be pointed out that most major items of rehabilitation appear as one project or program item, while in the case of 226 individual small bridges they are contained in a single project. It is estimated that the USPRA and the Bureau of Public Works together will be able to restore over 1,500 individual items of construction under the prog ram as now. contemplated. Fifty-nine of the 262 pro jects are road projects involving the repair of 503 kilometers of highway surfaces and 203 involve 35 kilometers of bridges. Evidence of our work in and around Manila is seen in Espana and Santa Mesa Boulevard which have been completed for more than a year, the detour bridges across the Pasig River near the Jones and Quezon Bridges preparatory to construction of the per manent structures, construction of the Jones Bridge, the San Juan Bridge, the Pritil Bridge, the bridge at the entrance to the International Airport, the paving work on Manila city streets such as Dewey Boulevard, For Top Engine Performance THE WORLD'S LARGEST SELLING MOTOR OIL STANDARD - VACUUM OIL COMPANY PHILIPPINES 126 AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March. 19*9 CHAM SAMCO & SONS, INC Direct Importers of General Hardware. Construction Materials, Builders Hardware, Plumbing Supplies Paints & Oils, Ship Chandlery, Mine & Mill Supplies, Agricultural Implements, Lumber Camp Tools, Rice Mill Supplies. Door Hangers & Tracks for Sliding Doors. 300-308 Sto. Cristo, Manila Tel. 2-81-72 use CMC CONSTRUCTION MACHINERY • Concrete Mixers • Saw Tables • Hoists • Pumps NON-TII.T MIXER Different models & sizes in stock For particulars call on: . THE EARNSHAWS DOCKS & HONOLULU IRON WORKS Cor. Tacoma & 2nd Sts. Branch Office at: Port Area, Manila Bacolod, Negros Occidental Telephones: 2-68-48 & 2-67-47 Isaac Peral, Herran, Marquez de Comillas, Trabajo, Dagupan, Tayuman, Blumentritt, Tejeron, Labores, and Padre Burgos. Among other projects around Ma nila are the Paranaque paving, the Manila South Road, the 7 Malolos-Calumpit bridges, the Paranaque River Bridge, the Binan Diversion, and the section of the Manila North Road between Malolos and Calumpit wherein additional to the 7 small bridges already men tioned, 7 kilometers of concrete pavement between Malolos and Apalit have been completed. Five more kilometers are presently being built. Other bridges which have been completed are the Tigbauan, the Banao, the Balatuin, and the Panabautan. Work has started on the reconstruction of the Calumpit, Plaridel Bued, Gilbert, Amburayan, Cutcut, Labangan, Sulipan, Diliman Creek, Culiat, General Luna, Bamban, an Viga bridges outside of Manila. In addition to construction projects, a research project, called the Highway Planning Survey, is pro grammed from each year’s funds. The purpose of this project is to gather factual information on which in telligent programs of construction can be based and which will serve as a guide for administrative poli cies of the Philippine Bureau of Public Works, Brief ly, the force set up under this project, inventories the highway system to determine the adequacies of its improvement; counts and classifies the traffic using the highway system; determines travel characteris tics with respect to trip-lengths, origin, and destina tion, etc., and compiles sources and amounts of income and expenditure. The personnel on this project are largely Filipino with a staff of American engineers and economist working in liaison with them for train ing purposes. A central materials-testing laboratory has been established at 16th Street and Bonifacio Drive in the Port Area, Manila, for the purpose of testing all con struction materials used in roads, streets, and bridges. This laboratory was put into operation by the Bureau of Public Works and the Public Roads Administration in August, 1947, testing soils and aggregates. The scope of its operations gradually widened as newly ordered equipment arrived from the United States. The USPRA expended approximately P230,000 to equip this laboratory. The Bureau of Public Works at present employes approximately 80 persons to per form tests, do necessary clerical work, operate the field sampling equipment, and maintain and continue erection of laboratory buildings. An additional 60 men do “on the spot” testing at project sites under the di rection of the laboratory. Most of the employees are young college students or recent graduates. Wherever you go in the Philippines you will pro bably see some evidence of the U. S. Public Roads Administration and Bureau of Public Works system. This is a stupendous job being done under adverse and expensive conditions. It is expected that the next 2 years will see most of the system restored to and in some instances expanded beyond its pre-war state. United States Information Service, Manila “High taxation, which takes a large portion of the earnings of labor as well as those of the investor, destroys much of the incentive to greater produc tivity.”