MORE NEWS, BENGUET

20 gun ban violators nabbed in Cordillera
CAMP DANGWA, La Trinidad, Benguet – Police authorities here reported around 20 individuals were arrested by combined police operatives for violation of the gun ban imposed by the Commission on Elections in relation with the Oct. 29 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.

Chief Supt. Eugene G. Martin, regional director of the Police Regional Office in the Cordillera, revealed that more than 25 low and high-power firearms including more than 100 ammunitions were also confiscated in various checkpoints and regular mobile foot patrol operations.

Prior to the October 29 elections, police from Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Mountain province and Baguio City conducted close to 2,000 checkpoints operations under the Oplan Bakal and Sita.

It was learned that most of the checkpoints were conducted din Abra and Baguio due to its history of violence during the previous elections.

At least 10 cases for violation of the Comelec gun ban were subsequently filed against the arrested intervals in the different courts in the region.

The latest to be arrested for the implementation of the Comelec gun ban was Tito Adame, 35, who was arrested for illegal possession of a Cal. 45 loaded with nine bullets. -- Dexter A. See


Two vital Benguet roads left out
BY DEXTER SEE LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The national government must include in its priority projects the rehabilitation of two major national roads in this vegetable-producing province for easier link between the province to Region I and II and provide an alternate route for immediate delivery of agricultural products to lowland markets.

Rep. Samuel Dangwa, bared this, saying rehabilitation of the Acop-Kapanangan-Kibungan-Bakun and Abatan-Kabayan-Bokod secondary national roads would boost economic development in the seven towns of the province.

The Acop-Kapangan-Kibungan-Bakun road is a 95-km road linking the towns of Tublay, Kapangan, Kibungan, Bakun and Buguias and could connect to the Abatan-Mankayan-Cervantes road which is one of the flagship projects of the Arroyo administration funded by the Japan Bank of International Cooperation.

On the other hand, the Abatan-Kabayan-Bokod road links the towns of Buguias, Kabayan and Bokod and connects to the Abatan-Mankayan-Cervantes road on the side of Region I and the Benguet-Nueva Vizcaya road in the other side of the province linking Benguet with Region II which is about to be completed and funded by the JBIC.

Dangwa said the two roadlines would serve as an alternate route for motorists and especially farmers when the Halsema highway, the main road artery in the Cordillera, is closed to vehicular traffic due to landslides brought about by continuous rains during the rainy season.

Initially, the lawmaker is requesting the national government to allocate at least P2 billion for the partial rehabilitation of the two roads.

Earlier, experts said at least P5 billion is needed to completely rehabilitate the two alternate roads of Benguet to be at par with the on-going rehabilitation of the Halsema highway from Baguio City to Banaue, Ifugao.

China Harbor Center, the contractor of the P800 million rehabilitation of the Abatan-Mankayan-Cervantes road, already started mobilization works within the 41-km roadline.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has included the Cordillera as one of the priority areas of development in her State of the Nation Address for the past two years because of the need to improve its road networks for easier access to potential ecotourism sites and ensure the delivery of agricultural products, particularly vegetables, to the lowland and Metro Manila markets.

Vegetable farming is the main source of livelihood of over 250,000 residents of the different towns here but the absence of good roads hampers the smooth delivery of quality vegetables to the market outlets in the lowland and Metro Manila markets.

Dangwa said the existence of good road networks would greatly help in reducing the cost of vegetable products being brought to the different markets of the country.