Tagbilaran City mayor John Geesnell Yap (Photo from Tagbilaran website).

The provincial office of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) in Bohol announced on Tuesday that it will be conducting a final validation this week in line with the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte to clear public areas within towns and cities of obstruction.

In a statement to the Daily Tribune, DILG provincial director Johnjoan Mende revealed that his office will conduct a final validation of Bohol local government unit’s (LGU) compliance on the directive of President Duterte.

The Interior provincial director also noted that his office has not yet “consolidated the results of the initial validation” yet the initial reports indicate there is “a certain degree of compliance by our Bohol LGU.”

He expects that the level of compliance will go up based on the final validation.

Meantime, Tagbilaran City mayor John Geesnell Yap said he is confident that the LGU will be able to comply with the directives of the DILG, noting that the people are supportive of the clearing operations of the city and will continue to clear the obstructions even if the deadline set on the Interior department’s directive.

Yap said the city has conducted a first round of clearing operations and will be making another round of clearing operations to ensure no one will return and cause obstruction anew.

The city conducted clearing operations on the busy Dr. Cecilio Putong Street and the clearing operations on the busy street centered on the illegally parked vehicles and also conducted operations on Poblacion 2 — the city’s central shopping district.

Also, the information officer of Panglao town, Chandymar Batoy said the local government unit of Bohol tourism’s crown jewel has been working to clear obstructions before the deadline.