Kalinga barangays sign claim waiver on farm to market road

By Larry T. Lopez

PINUKPUK, Kalinga – Construction of a farm-to-market road project funded under the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP)   in this town is expected to proceed smoothly after officials of the six barangays traversed by said project signed waiver on road-right of way claims.

Gov. Jocel C. Baac, who led the ground breaking last week of the P197.6M road improvement project, said all chairmen of barangays Catabbogan, Wagud, Malagnat, Ammacian, Taggay and Sakpil have signed the waiver of claim.

The “no claim” policy on road-right-of-way is one of the strict conditions imposed by the World Bank that funds the project, Baac elaborated.

Baac said the project proposal on the 13.2-km FMR had rough sailing for almost two years before it was approved. 

He said no contractor was interested to bid the project because of difficulty in meeting PRDP project standards until he was able to persuade the Omengan Construction and Development Corporation to do the project.

Because of this, he called on officials and people of the host-barangays to throw full support by not making any single claim on portions of their properties affected.   

Targeted to be completed after a 510-day work schedule, the project will provide market access to the upland barangays which are top producers of coffee, banana, corn and coconut.  

Department of Agriculture – Cordillera regional director Lorenzo Caranguian handed recently the “no objection letter-2” to the province that gave the green light for the project to start.

Kalinga is the second highest recipient of the PRDP in the country and top in the Cordillera with about P500 million worth of ongoing FMR projects.