Five brand new heavy equipment worth P58 million arrived in Negros Oriental yesterday and will be used in the rebuilding and rehabilitation efforts of the provincial government.

Gov. Roel Ragay Degamo said the equipment will help greatly in the ongoing rehabilitation of infrastructure damaged in last year’s tropical storm “Sendong” and the recent 6.9 magnitude earthquake.

The province bought a road roller, bulldozer, backhoe, pay loader and grader, for the ongoing dredging of rivers Banica in Dumaguete and Ocoy in Sibulan, following pronouncements from a former DENR official, that these are prone to flash floods.

Board members Liland Estacion and Jessica Villanueva, who attended the turnover and blessing of the new equipment yesterday, said the governor found it necessary to acquire them, so the request for P66 million in funds approved, even before the two calamities struck the province.

Technicians from the Commission on Audit Region 7, meanwhile, are coming to conduct physical inspection and inventory of the equipment.*JG