By NITZ ARANCON Correspondent THE Department of Public Works and Highways has brought the dispute over a Lapasan property in the way of a major road to the office of Solicitor General Jose Calida so the government could complete the project started during the Magtajas administration. Vinah Jean Maghinay, spokesperson of the DPWH in Region 10, said the government would take the property by public authority. Maghinay said the property in Lapasan on which Barangay 23 chairperson Conrad Lim built a house would likely be subjected to expropriation proceedings, a legal recourse city engineer Roland Pacuribot earlier dismissed because of the supposed absence of legal documents pertaining to the property. The property, according to Pacuribot, is a reclamation. Maghinay said the DPWH is in the process of gathering documents that were required by the Office of the Solicitor General. The documents required include certifications of reclamation from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and from the Philippine Reclamation Authority. “Nangayo kita ug certification sa DENR ug PRA aron atong masuta kon nag-apply ba o wala si Kapitan Lim sa reclamation sa Lapasan. Kon pananglit nag-apply siyag reclamation, ato usab nga masuta kon ang iyang application for  reclamation, gi-approve ba o wala sa DENR ug  PRA,” said Maghinay. The construction of the four-lane coastal road is part of a 12.17-kilometer road project from Barangay Gusa, this city, to Igpit, Opol in Misamis Oriental that was started 20 years ago. The project is 92.95 percent completed, according to Maghinay. City hall officials said the coastal road from Gusa to Puntod, traversing through Lapasan, would have significantly eased the vehicular traffic congestion on CM Recto Avenue and neighboring areas had DPWH sped up its completion a long time ago. From Puntod, it would be linked to the new diversion road towards Igpit, Opol town, traversing Kauswagan, Bayabas, Bulua and Iponan, via a bridge. Maghinay said the DPWH is working to complete the project, started in 1997, later this year. “Nag-start kini nga project niadtong 1997 pero niadtong panahona, clearing pa sa mga yuta nga maagi-an sa maong dalan,” she said. The actual construction started some time in 2000 when the President was Joseph Estrada. Maghinay said the national government has already spent P3.6 billion of the P4-billion budget  for the project since 1997. The budget included the construction of the Puntod-Kauswagan Bridge. “Kada tuig man mag-release ug pundo ang national government para igasto niini nga project,” she said. This year, Maghinay said, the national government has set aside P300 million more in order the complete the coastal road from Gusa to Puntod. A section of the project, worth some P200 million, was awarded to Equi-Parco Construction Co. while another P100 million for another part of the project was bagged by Gicer Construction Co..