Benguet gets 10 tram multi-million projects

By Dexter A. See

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — The national government earmarked multi-million-peso funds under the agricultural infrastructure program for construction of at least 10 tramlines in this province.

The tramline projects are expected to ensure speedy transport of vegetables to the market.

Agriculture officials, who earlier inspected the areas where the tramlines will be installed, said the facilities would be given to areas which were excluded from the list of tramline projects funded by the Department of Agriculture in previous years.

Earlier, the DA allotted funds for the construction of 100 tramlines, 25 water-impounding dams, and flat-bed dryers for the provinces in the region.

Benguet got the P10 million for construction of farm-to-market roads during the simultaneous nationwide recent launching of the government’s farm-to-market-road program.

Abra, Apayao, Ifugao, Kalinga, and Mountain Province, all in Cordillera, also got the same amount from the national government’s farm-to-market-road program.

The agriculture department wants to build at least 2,000 kilometers of farm-to-market roads nationwide.

The construction of these roads is expected to create at least 53,000 jobs for the poor people in remote areas.

The national government’s farm-to-market-road program will benefit at least 212,000 farmers in agricultural and hunger-prone areas in the country which are in dire need of assistance.

The construction of farm-to-market roads, irrigation systems, and other agricultural infrastructure facilities is part of the national government’s effort to perk up the economy in the rural areas. This is one of the measures intended to ease the impact of the global financial crisis in the country.

Last year, five Cordillera governors assailed the DA for allegedly playing favorites in distribution of projects.

They complained that Benguet always got the lion’s share from fund allocations for farm-to-market road projects, saying their provinces also need funds to build roads leading to agricultural areas.

Benguet is considered as the "Salad Bowl of the Philippines" because of its big vegetable production. The province provides 80 percent of the country’s need for highland vegetables in the past several decades.

However, the rampant smuggling of vegetables from China, which are considered cheap, has given the local vegetable industry a big setback as the locally grown vegetables are not patronized by the high-end market due to their high price.