No foreign contractors will be allowed to dredge the Cagayan River even for free, Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu said on Thursday.

“We have a ruling that there will be no foreign contractors here, they should be all Filipinos who have a construction company and this is really a part of our river restoration projects all over the country. This is not only in Cagayan River, all rivers that need to be restored, we are allowing contractors to dredge the river for free but they can get their—whatever stunts they will be able to get there – so they can also recover their cost of dredging,” Cimatu said in Palace media briefing.

Cimatu said even the dredging will be done for free, a memorandum of agreement is needed to ensure the work will be done properly by the contractor.

He said governors in Cagayan Valley will sign the agreement with the contractors since the dredging project involves several provinces along the Cagayan River.

Cimatu also said contractors still need to secure clearances and pay the 4 percent excise tax to the government.

“There is a process naman sa pagkuha ng contractor by the governor, ay may proseso po iyan. Mayroong, they have mga clearances, everything. At saka mayroon din naman silang iyong authority to transport nila, they have to get the clearance from the Bureau of Mines (There is a process in getting the contractor by the governor. They have clearances, everything. They also have the authority to transport, and they also have to get the clearance from the Bureau of Mines),” Cimatu said.

Cimatu said dredging is necessary for the heavily silted Cagayan River, the longest and the largest by discharge volume of water in the country, to prevent a repeat of the massive flooding in the provinces of Cagayan and Isabela during successive typhoons last month.

Aside from dredging, Cimatu said there will strict enforcement of the 20-meter easement rule along the river.

“This means that at the bank of the river, there will be no other structures 20 meters on both sides,” he said.

The DENR, he said, will also look closely on the illegal logging especially in Sierra Madre, Cordillera, and Caraballo mountain.

“We will be planting bamboo. So for the rest of the river, we will be planting around the bank of the river, 20 meters wide from the bank of the river. So these are our interventions. Another major is Magapit Narrow to make the water free-flowing,” Cimatu said. (PNA)