Officials urge GMA: Give funds for deadly Sagada-Dantay road

By Gina Dizon

SAGADA, Mountain Province – President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo was urged last week by respective Sangguniang Bayan of Besao and Sagada towns in a joint resolution requesting. her to immediately release funds to improve the dangerous Sagada-Dantay road road and prevent further loss of lives.

Guard rails are at present being installed along the stretch of the 13.5 km road by the Department of Public Works and Highways,

Earlier, Pastor Victor Batcagan and his family were on their way to Sagada last Oct. 31 when their jeep fell down the road killing five persons and injuring 11 others.

“The recent accidents add to previous accidents which cannot be ignored and claimed as a mechanical error, or another of those vehicular mishaps due to bad road conditions,” the resolution said.

Nine passengers of a Besao-Bontoc jeepney died and nine others were injured when the vehicle plunged down a 50-foot ravine along the road at Sitio Pegeo in November 2007.

The driver of the ill-fated jeepney tried to maneuver the vehicle off the very narrow portion of the road while on an uphill climb when it fell down the ravine.

In the same year, engineer Tomas Lawagan bound to Besao fell down the rice paddies towards the river in his Ford Fiera, along the Sagada-Dantay Road.

In December 1996, a Besao- Bontoc jeep fell in the same section of the road where the Batcagan jeep fell which led to the deaths of seven teachers from Besao and injury to 13 others.

A copy of the Resolution was forwarded to the Office of Thomas A. Killip, Presidential Assistant for the Cordillera Affairs, for appropriate action.

The Dantay- Sagada Road, also called as John Staunton Road in honor of Anglican Bishop John Staunton who built the road in the early 1900s, was declared a national road by President Arroyo during her last visit to Sagada.

This was realized by virtue of Department Order No. 20 issued by former DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr, which stated it was a vital access road to boost the tourism industry of Sagada.

Due to the recent October accident, demands were sent to the office of the DPWH for the immediate improvement of the dangerous highway.

Engineer Richard Yodong, a public works contractor and native of Sagada said what is urgently needed is the widening of the dangerous curve where accidents usually happen.

The Cordillera Regional Development Council also expressed support for completion of the concreting works of the road.

Savings from the implementation of SONA projects along Halsema Highway have been identified as source of funds for the improvement of the road.

The SONA projects are projected to be finished before the end of the year yet conditions say that these suffer from road right of way issues aside from allegations of corruption which reached the Commission on Audit.