P336 M set for Benguet road projects

By Dexter A See

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The national government recently earmarked P336 million for the rehabilitation and upgrading of four secondary national arterial roads in this vegetable-producing province to improve the accessibility from farms to markets.

Rep. Samuel M. Dangwa said out of the total fund allocation, P213 million will be used for the upgrading of the Acop-Kapangan-Kibungan-Bakun-Buguias road, P53 million will be used for repair of Bokod-Gorel-Kabayan-Abatan road and P70 million to improve the Itogon-Dalupirip and the Baguio City limit-Mount Santo Tomas roads.

While the province was not able to get allocation for State of the Nation Addresss projects the past several years, Dangwa said there are still vital road networks in the province which needs appropriate funding from the national government in order to improve accessibility for the benefit of the farming communities and the residents as a whole.

The Acop-Kapangan-Kibungan-Bakun-Buguias road connects five major vegetable-producing towns in the province and serves as an alternate route to the Halsema highway, especially during the rainy season when the latter would be closed to vehicular traffic due to landslides.

On the other hand, the Gorel-Bokod, Kabayan-Abatan road serves as an alternate link to three towns in the southern part of Benguet.

The Itogon-Dalupirip road connects several barangays of the town to a proposed road network that would exit in San Manuel, Pangasinan where the San Roque dam is located while the Baguio city limit-Mountain Santo Tomas road is a link from the Summer Capital of the Philippines to Kabuyao Sto. Tomas, one of the prestigious tourist destinations in the province because it is overlooking the Ilocos Region and is the site of the numerous communication towers owned by telecommunication, broadcast and television companies.

Dangwa said rehabilitation of the roads, especially the Acop-Kapangan-Kibungan-Bakun-Buguias road, will greatly help in reducing the lucrative marijuana trade which the cordillera is known for because farmers would venture more on farming because of the improved accessibility which means lesser transportation cost on their part.

Dangwa said Benguet supplies at least 80 percent of the country’s vegetable requirement, thus, it is important for government to provide appropriate funding support to lessen the problems of farmers on the absence of good roads to lessen the transportation cost of their products from the farms to the market here. – Dexter A See