Crucial Sabangan Bridge set to open

By Gina Dizon

BONTOC, Mountain Province – Travellers will now have easier access along the Halsema Highway with opening of the long-awaited P26 million Sabangan Bridge which connects Mountain Province to Baguio City.

The Sabangan Bridge will be opened Sept. 11 or 21, said District Engineer Alexander Castaneda of the Mountain Province First District Engineering Office.

A part of the Bontoc-Baguio road, the 36 x 7 meter Sabangan bridge started construction in 2014 when it was demolished to supposedly give way to a new one by 2015.

The plan did not push through with a design which got stuck in the central office of the Department of Public Works and Highways in Manila for three years following complaint of owners of adjacent houses at the foot of the bridge as the initial design shall affect a tombstone and a part of another’s property at the opposite side of the foot of the bridge.

When Castaneda assumed office mid-year of 2017, the stalled construction of the bridge was continued.  

Projected to be finished in a year by Tribu Construction, “we had to work up the required period of the project to have it finished,” Castaneda said in an interview.

Within a year since Castaneda assumed office last year saw the construction of four bridges - one replaced and reconstructed bridge and detour bridge in Sabangan, two bridges in Tamboan Besao, and a detour by pass road in place of a bridge which got damaged and prevented traffic for quite some time along the Natonin-Barlig Road.  

In this province, bridges and roads have to be built over rivers and mountains so as not to isolate people so they could do usual business in capital towns.

The Sabangan Bridge found along the Baguio-Bontoc road connects to the capital town of Bontoc, the tourist town of Sagada and westward to the Nakawang-Tadian road via Besao, northward to the Kalinga-Bontoc road via Sadanga and eastward to the Ifugao-Bontoc road.

The Sabangan bridge is crucial otherwise without it, economy would be paralized.

With the dismantling of the old 1970’s built Sabangan Bridge in 2014, a temporary bailey bridge was constructed at the opposite side above the Bayudan River to temporarily link access to opposite routes.

This was washed out however by rampaging rain waters due typhoon Lawin in October 2016 paralyzing movement of commuters and motorists from one end to the other. This gave way to the building of a new detour bridge from a P5.6 million calamity fund implemented by JBA construction with the installation of two concrete abutments on both sides of the connecting 13 to 14 bailey panels made available by Castaneda, and assembled for a sturdy detour bridge which saw reality in July 2017.

Castaneda, native of the capital town of Bontoc, was assistant district engineer of MPDEO, then assigned as district engineer in Baguio DEO then as DE of Benguet DEO before he assumed as DE of MPFDEO covering the western towns of Besao, Sagada, Tadian, Bauko, Sabangan, Sadanga, Bontoc and part Barlig.  MP Second District Engineering Office is headed by engineer Rustom Martinez and covers Natonin, Paracelis and part Barlig.  

Meanwhile, the Tamboan Bridge funded by the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan  (PAMANA) under the Office of the Presidential Assistant on Peace Process (OPAPP) saw reality.  

Construction of a 10 linear meter slab bridge and 20 linear meter reinforced concrete deck grinder (RCDG) Bridge of Tamboan, Besao via Tubo, Abra connects Mountain Province, Abra and Quirino Province.

Infrastructure work includes retaining wall, scour protection and bridge approaches. Construction of the road gets travel time of two to three hours from Abra to Besao.

Assistant District Engineer Esther Taynec of MP Second District Engineering Office said Castaneda continued work of former district engineer Wilbur LIkigan to construct the by-pass road that linked the disconnected national highway at Balabag along the Bontoc- Barlig-Natonin road.  

With a terrain 18% in slope and over, most of the roads cut along the slopes of roads in the Province are owned by indigenous peoples who have their homes erected in the mountains, their agricultural activities in the mountains and pasture lands in the forests.

By virtue of native title and supported by the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA), forests are indigenous people’s private properties and not forest reserves nor public property as PD 705 provides.  

So when a national road, a local road or even a farm to market road gets constructed and cuts the mountain slopes or a strip of land, the contractor or the DPWH faces mountainous problems on how to secure that piece of land for public use.

Many times, road rights of way issues are a problem where the owner demands just compensation for land taken for public use.  Road right of way issues is a major delay of the project aside from weather and contractor’s competence to do the job in a period of time, Castaneda said.

So one has to find ways how the uncompensated lot can be given for public use, he added.

Only titled lands can be paid if used for public purposes according to Philippine law.

This means unpatented or untitled lands cannot be compensated if taken for road right of way purposes. Lot owners cannot use tax declarations as these are for tax purposes and not legal titles of ownership.    

What the contractor does is to negotiate the bulldozing or paving of private lots in exchange for the taking of affected road right of way on the projected road section, Castaneda said

Executive Order  622  of 1980 amended EO 113  of 1955 which provides that national roads  shall have a right of way of not less than 20 meters  provided that such  minimum width  may be reduced at the discretion of the Minister of Public Highways  to  15 meters  in highly urbanized areas and that the right of way of at least 60 meters shall be reserved for roads constructed through unpatented public land and at least 120 meters reserved through naturally  forested areas of aesthetic  or science value.

National roads in Mountain Province measure maximum of 15 meters in width including the shoulders, drainage and the pavement. 

Local roads are 10 meters in width including shoulders and the drainage section.

Castaneda said he is urging local government officials to forward requests to the DPWH for the lessening of the 60 meter road width of national roads to 15 meters