The deadly Sagada-Dantay road

HAPPY WEEKEND
Gina Dizon

SAGADA, Mountain Province -- This dilapidated centennial ‘death road’ which claimed a number of lives through the years needs all the improvement to prevent further accidents.

The recent October 31 deaths of four members of a family then riding in a family jeep driven by pastor engineer Victor Batcagan is too much of an accident to ignore and claim as a mechanical error, or another of those vehicular mishaps due to bad road conditions.

Sympathies to the families of the victims, and groans on the current state of the still-sorry looking Dantay- Sagada road moved the northern Kankana-ey speaking yahoo e-groups Kotim-ya-Eta (KyE) to forward the need to reroute the accident prone section atop Dantay barangay where the ill-fated Batcagan jeep fell.

The suggested diversion road proceeds leftwards (if coming from Dantay), snaking along the area where another vehicular accident in 2007 plunging the jeep of Engr Lawagan towards the river and causing his death, and further onwards till it reaches the nearest accessible part of the road.

Engineer Richard Yodong said the suggested diversion road will avoid the dangerous curve while moving out from threatening landslides on the current winding stretch of avoided road. Yodong said, the proposed initiative is currently on the desk of Mountain Province OIC District Engineer John Toynoan Marquez of DPWH-Mountain Province for his appropriate action, to be eventually followed up for request for the necessary funding to the office of the President through Presidential Assistant for Cordillera Affairs Thomas Killip.

While this is so, affected properties on the road-right of way portions was forwarded as an important factor to consider based on existing laws before implementation pushes through so as to let the planned project proceed smoothly.

Yodong mentioned that this suggestion was earlier aired to check the dangerous curve atop barangay Dantay when a Besao- Bontoc jeep fell in the same curve which led to the deaths of 7 teachers and injury to 13 others in December 1996. Re-routing alternatives were also explored in earlier attempts as claimed by lawyer Lino Macalingay, whose mother was one of the ill- fated victims of the 1996 accident.

Nine passengers of a Besao-Bontoc jeepney also died and nine others were injured in November 2007 when the jeepney plunged into a 50-foot ravine on the Dantay-Sagada Road at Sitio Pegeo which led to the conduct of a ritual to prevent further accidents. The driver of the ill-fated jeepney tried to maneuver the vehicle off a poorly engineered portion of the road while on an uphill climb when it fell down the ravine, as earlier reported.

The suggested diversion road comes as an added initiative from resolutions already presented in previous efforts; and so with projects already done along the stretch of the road.

Early this year, the Regional Development Council in its efforts to promote tourism, expressed support to the completion of the concreting of the Dantay-Sagada Road also known as John Staunton Road in honor of Anglican Bishop John Staunton who led in constructing the road in the early 1900s .Savings from the Halsema SONA projects is eyed as source for the proposed funding for the repair of the 13.5 kilometer road.

The Dantay- Sagada Road was declared as a national road by virtue of Department Order No. 20 by DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr as a vital access road to boost the tourism industry of the municipality Sagada. This means concreting of the 13.5-km road can then be directly appropriated by the department as it is a national road.

A P20 million Bayan Muna project was implemented four years ago which cemented a section of the road along sitio Mabbay; plus a P1 million project from the Provincial Government which cemented a portion along Dapdapanan.

President Gloria Macapagal -Arroyo also handed P100 million to then former Sagada Mayor Robert Baaten for the rehabilitation of the 13.5 kilometer Dantay Sagada Road when she visited the tourist town in 2005. Part of the funds was used to cement the intersection at the Dantay area.

As it stands, a long stretch of the dilapidated road still needs more finances for concreting aside from appropriating funds for the suggested diversion road.