To ensure the successful integration and effective implementation of the city’s High Priority Bus System (HPBS), Mayor Sara Z. Duterte has ordered the creation of an inter-agency task force for the project.

In a statement Thursday, the local government said Duterte issued an executive order to ensure that the HPBS project is properly managed and coordinated with all the relevant agencies.

The Davao City HPBS Task Force, also known as TF HPBS, will be composed of the city mayor as chairperson and a representative of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) as co-chairperson.

The members of the special body are the vice mayor, representatives of the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Environment and Natural Resources – Environment Management Bureau, City Planning and Development Office, City Engineer’s Office, Office of the City Building Official, City Legal Office, City Transport and Traffic Management Office, City Social Welfare and Development Office, Barangay and Cultural Communities Affairs Division, Assistant City Administrator for Administration, HPBS project consultant/s, and the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc.

“The TF HPBS is primarily tasked to plan, coordinate, implement, and align across agencies all project components of the HPBS project. The group will meet once a month,” Duterte said in the order.

In including the national agencies in the task force, she cited Section 2 of Republic Act 7160 – the Local Government Code of 1991 – that mandates all national agencies and offices “to conduct periodic consultations with appropriate local government units (LGUs), non-governmental and people’s organizations, and other concerned sectors of the community before any project or program is implemented in their respective jurisdictions.”

The City Administrator’s Office, on the other hand, is mandated to be the TF HPBS secretariat that will handle all administrative and secretarial functions.

The operating costs of the TF HPBS will be sourced from the available funds of the city government or the project itself and are subject to usual accounting and auditing rules and regulations. (PNA)