Benguet’s killer roads

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza

ITOGON, Benguet -- The family was bound for Sitio Balokok, Barangay Dalupirip here to attend the wake and burial of a relative when the passenger jeep they were riding in plunged down a 200-foot cliff two weeks ago.

Four of the nine passengers were killed on the spot. They were Ceferino Golingab, 81; his wife Sarah, 78; and husband and wife Emiliano and Virginia Tomino, 50 and 49 y/o, respectively, all residents of Poblacion, Itogon. I condole with those they left behind.

The rest of the passengers who were thrown out when the jeep fell off the ravine survived and were rushed to the Baguio Gen. Hospital.

Sitio Balokok of Dalupirip is where the Itogon-San Manuel (Pangasinan) secondary-national road stops. One reaches the sitio by traversing a road that leads to the right at a junction before a dead-end that connects to an animal bridge going to Central Dalupirip .

I have gone to Balokok more than a couple of times or so and have experienced that unpaved road to the sitio but this was when the weather was dry. In reality, traversing the road which could be best described as a riverbed ends on the side of a creek-tributary to the Agno River .

The Dalupirip-Balokok road follows the side of a high mountain ridge overlooking the grand Agno River that snakes down to San Roque dam. Below Balokok are sitios Kalew and Lawigen, hence, San Roque dam in San Manuel is still far.

Itogon school Principal Emil Esnara who recounted what transpired on that fateful day said, the front left wheel of the passenger jeep apparently slipped off the rugged and rain-drenched road shoulder.

This was so because the jeep’s wheels were following an uphill curve to the right made worse by a long hump where the driver can not see the landing ahead, Emil related. I understood his explanation as an accident attributed more to a very bad road condition than mechanical defect and human error.

Although human error was partly to blame in the accident as motor vehicle drivers needed to familiarize themselves with the road condition, accidents could be avoided if priorities for the sake of safety are restudied.

The road is part of the Itogon-San Manuel road that has not been widened nor paved, contrary to what has been claimed in some newspaper publications that “90 per cent had already been accomplished.”

Benguet Rep. Samuel Dangwa has even praised the road contractors for “quality work accomplished in widening and paving the Dalupirip-San Manuel road,” but maybe he was talking about the Itogon-Tinongdan section.
The road where the most recent accident killed four people is exactly the same as it was before the construction of the San Roque dam – unpaved and has not been widened, in contrast to what politicians tell us.

On our way to Abra last month, I noticed that the road section from Lamtang towards Sablan was neatly overlaid with ready-cooked black asphalt.

My seatmates in the van commented that the agency concerned is again spending money and resources even on roads that do not need any repair as of the moment.

Whatever reason the agency has in black-topping roads that are in very good condition may be none of my business but they are aware that there are more important priorities inside their areas that need attention.

That deplorable road accident along the Dalupirip-Balokok section of the much touted Itogon-San Manuel road could not have happened if only it was given the needed attention.

Such sad road conditions remind me of what Benguet Gov. Nestor Fongwan said during a meeting of the Regional Development Council in Bontoc, Mt. Province . He said there are still a number of barangays in his province that are isolated because no roads lead to these communities.

There are roads to a majority of barangays in the province but they look more like dry riverbeds during dry months and become impassable rivers when the rains come.

In fact, providing road access to isolated barangays and giving attention to the existing ones was what Fongwan believed was necessary before any campaign for regional autonomy begins.

Itogon Mayor Mario Godio confirmed this saying that the region's quest for “autonomy would succeed if only the people could witness a developed infrastructure, particularly road networks” – a good point that may be considered in the drafting of a new organic act, if there is going to be one.

But what is needed now is to get rid of Benguet’s killer roads. It is not the first time that bad roads were blamed for the death of motorists. News reports in the past tell of unfortunate accidents blamed on bad roads in Bokod, Kabayan, Kapangan, Kibungan, Mt. Trail or Halsema and other places in the country.

And people can no longer afford to see more deaths caused by bad roads while other roads in good condition are being re-paved with expensive black asphalt overlay. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com