The Department of Public Works and Highways has completed the second phase of the construction of an access road that leads to the hidden Pinipisakan Falls in San Jorge, Samar.

Funded under the 2023 Tourism Road Infrastructure Program (TRIP), the PHP48.95 million road project will make the waterfalls accessible to tourists, DPWH-Samar 1st District Engineering Office chief Raulito Yangzon said in a phone interview Wednesday.

The construction began in February and was completed last week.

Yangzon said the second phase project covers the construction of a road that is 800 meters in length and 6.1 meters wide, as well as the paving of the road shoulders.

The DPWH also installed seven meters of reinforced concrete pipe culverts and built a 45-meter slope protection.

In 2022, the DPWH completed the PHP4.65 million first phase of the road project, also funded by TRIP. The project covered the paving of 546 meters of a two-lane road.

Yangzon said he is still unsure how many more phases would be needed to complete the entire 9.9-km. road stretch from Blanca Aurora to Bay-ang villages as work depends on budget allotment from the national government.

The first two phases of the multi-year project have just opened and concreted 1.34 km. of road.

Before the road pavement, Pinipisakan Falls could only be reached through a three-hour motorboat ride and hiking.

Pinipisakan is a four-tiered waterfall cascading down from a cave in the forest deep in the jungles of San Jorge, Samar. (PNA)