DOT tourism road joke of the century

HAPPY WEEKEND

By Gina Dizon  

SAGADA, Mountain Province -- After all is said and done, construction of the controversial P100 million Sabangan-Sagadaroad shall barely reach Sagada.

               

The project funds shall end road works just above  Barangay of Taccong, Sagada   from Ditio Dawdawan of Nakagang on to the ascending Madepdeppas route of Sabangan overlooking Taccong.

The P100 million road shall end barely touching this  tourist town and a municipality with its Sangguniang Bayan officials who started the proposal to extend the length of the Dantay-Sagada road to Suyo- Balili exiting towards the Bontoc-Baguio national road and which eventually became the Sabangan-Sagada Road.

This brings to  question the intention of this Department of Tourism road priority infrastructure tourism program done in cooperation with the Department   of Public Works and Highways to implement the project to boost tourism.  

District Engineer  Wilbur Likigan of  DPWH – Mountain Province  District office  estimates the  project  with  widening, concreting and riprapping of a new two lane  Madepdeppas road  spans a length of  4 to 5 kilometers.

That is where the budgetted P100 million Sabangan- Sagada roads will be used based on a P20-P30 million road expense per kilometer as per DPWH estimates.  After a  seven month lingering controversy of where the road project shall start, the die is cast and the project shall begin in Sabangan towards Taccong, Sagada  with no inch of a  kilometer  reaching  the adjacent barangay of Taccong nearby Sabangan municipality where one finds the not-much visited beautiful Balangagan Cave which needs exposure to tourists.

 Barangay  officials of  southern Taccong and Suyo  of Sagada, who must have been  dreaming that the project funds shall  reach  southern Sagada  shall have to contend to the reality that project funds shall not reach Taccong  when they signed a  petition  saying they were aware of the Madepdeppas  route  reaching the  Balangagan   Cave  and  Pongas Falls of nearby Suyo  barangay.

The petition was reportedly facilitated  by staff of the Mayor’s office of  the town. With their signatures, the southern barangay officials apparently did not favor the Sangguniang Bayan- initiated road exiting towards the existing Balili-Suyo dirt road.         

Said Sabangan-Sagada road project is soon to start implementation with road works to begin in Sabangan with the bidding already done at the regional DPWH office. 

 It all started with a 2011 resolution  from the Sangguniang  Bayan of  Sagada   requesting  DPWH Secretary  Rogelio Singson for the  extension of the   Dantay- Sagada Road  from  the road  above the  much-visited Sumaguing  cave  to the existing Suyo- Balili road  exiting towards  the Bontoc-Baguio Road.

Said resolution was forwarded to the regional office of the Department of Tourism with DOT regional director PurificacionMolintas earlier visiting Sagada during the Etag Festival February 2012 and inspecting the said proposed road on her way to Baguio.

The rest is history with the approval of a P100 million fund for the Sabangan-Sagada road included in General Appropriations Act of 2013 and the bidding of said project reportedly won by a construction company said to be linked with a top Sagada official’s construction company.   

Calisthenics of how initiated projects become contested shows the best of how DPWH plays with this kind of location games.

A contractor told this writer how a proposed and approved plan could be mangled once it is given a special allotment release order (SARO) and the project site transferred to another site. I am reminded of the  flood control projects  along the Chico River -- the subject of the  suspension of seven  engineers  of the  district office of  DPWH-Mt  Province  some months back last year, when said officers were found with  prima facie  evidence for falsifying  documents , grave misconduct  and gross neglect of duty on P102 million flood control projects following  complaint filed by Bontoc resident Rey Sagandoy. 

Singson’s order revealed changing of locations of already identified projects as per SARO specifications disregarding DPWH guidelines and the Secretary’s approval for realignment of funds. The re-invitation to bid cited that location of is in Gonogon, Bontoc   instead of Talubin, Bontoc as already indicated in said SARO. Singson’s order also found omitting Tambingan, Sabangan in said project Chico river flood control project.

Anyway, the  Madepdeppas route of this long playing Sabangan-Sagada Road  controversy was found to have no tourism  site  by the validation of the composite inspection  team  composed of  DOT, NEDA, and DPWH assisted by the tourism  staff  of the Mountain Province local government unit  during their November 21  visit  of said  proposed  tourism road.

A finding which clearly concluded that the Madepdeppas route was not the road to begin with  in said Sabangan-Sagada road and instead  begin following  the  initial proposal of the  SB of  Sagada to have the route lead towards the Suyo-Balili road where tourism potential  activities including  biking, star gazing, cloud catching  were noted  by composite team themselves.

A community worker whom the writer talked to also said she travelled the road most of the time in her younger   years and where she found no tourist come on at said  route -- no waterfalls, no ricefields, no  enticing eco trail, no pools- just  mountains to see and that’s all.  

 The tourism  angle of  the  convergence fund is the meat of  why  said  project was  proposed in the first place by  the legislative  unit of  Sagada to the DOT with intentions of propping up Balangagan Cave aside from serving as an alternative route of the  Dantay-Sagada Road mainly used as the thoroughfare  to reach Sagada and nearby Besao.

Aside from  noting the  tourism potential of a  place where the proposed road passes through,  the  tourism road infrastructure project prioritization  criteria (TRIPPC) of the DOT-DPWH convergence program basically  considers a road leading  to a tourist-visited place  with access  to accommodations such as hotels,  inns and restaurants. 

You will wonder where one finds accommodations in the Madepdeppas route barely reaching Sagada and not reaching Balangagan cave as per intentions of a tourism road. 

What  happened with DOT Director Molintas’  inspection along the  Balili route and  her  terming the  road as Sabangan- Sagada road  as per TRIPPC and endorsement of the Regional Development Council of said project,  and the  validation of the  DOT-NEDA-DPWH  composite team  findings that there is no tourist spot along the Madepdeppas route further recommending that project start  at  the road ending of the Dantay-Sagada road  above Sumaguing cave?

 You will wonder what the criteria are for how the project will finally begin at Sabangan despite said TRIPPC and the very intention of the DPWH-DOT convergence program to enhance tourism. One will further wonder where is the trumpeted daan Na matuwid Ni Presidente Pnoy!

 This roller coaster of string-pulling and influence posing to serve other interests seemingly has taken the beef of what it is.

Even  DPWH secretary  Rogelio Singson who was approached by the  Sangguniang  Bayan  and who  reportedly commented on how the DOT is being  turned round the neck  and suspended  the regional DPWH’s  bidding of said project has finally conceded  in finally ordering the bidding  of the Madepdeppas route reportedly based on recommendations from the DOT.    

This turn of events leaves proponents and the public to sigh with consolation that tourism funds shall continue the unfinished road opening of the “Sabangan-Sagada Road” and the upgrading of the Suyo-Balili road by 2014.  

Anyways, it is interesting to note why the insistence for the Madepdeppas route, a one lane dirt road that begins at Dawdawan, Nakagang of Sabangan town and ends in Taccong.

The road ends with the need of a bridge along the Inakang River to connect Taccong to nearby Suyo on to SagadaPoblacion where finds a number of tourist accomodation facilities.

The road needs to be widened and grouted and rip rapped and concreted needing lots of money.  As compared to the Balili- Suyo route, the route only needs concreting and some finishing touches at the road sides.  Engineer Likigan estimates the P100 million upgrading fund will stretch to some 6 to seven kilometers of the already existing Balili-Suyo road.

One contractor said, a contractor “will get more money” constructing a new two lane road that needs rip rapping and grouting and widening with concreting.  Whatever that is, I am left wondering.  As compared to smooth concreting of an already opened road, nothing much can be gained.”

I am reminded of the so many rip rapping works done along the Halsema Highway year after year. Rip rapping that seemingly never ends with new and renewed ripraps suddenly being constructed again. How ripraps become break-cracking endeavors is something I can’t help relating to the image of DPWH being a graft and corrupt ridden department in Philippine government. 

With the local and national elections around the corner, this DOT-DPWH convergence program to enhance tourism has faded like a dream.