New interlink road to boost growth in northern Luzon

By Dexter A. See

BONTOC, Mountain Province -- The immediate completion of the P131 million rehabilitation of the Mountain Province-Ilocos Sur road via Tue in Tadian town will boost economic development of northern Luzon, particularly the central Cordillera, because of improved inter-municipal, inter-provincial and inter-regional accessibility.

Gov. Leonard G. Mayaen bated this saying the road will greatly improve the trade and commerce in the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley and Cordillera regions.

Omengan Construction and Development Corp., a home-grown public works contractor, will implement road paving, widening, slope protection walls, drainage and sidewalks to make the road passable for all types of vehicles.

The project will complete the whole loop of the road considering that the Sabangan, Mountain Province to Cervantes, Ilocos Sur section of the road was already completed several years ago.

Mayaen said development of arterial roads leading to the province from the north, south, west and east sections will result to robust economic growth due to reduced travel time.

Mountain Province is strategically located in the central Cordillera because it is bounded by Kalinga and Cagayan provinces in the north, Benguet and Baguio City in the South, Ilocos Sur and Abra in the west and Ifugao, Nueva Vizcaya and Isabela in the east.

Aside from the rehabilitation and upgrading of national roads, Mayaen cited the government for its continuous provision of funding for the development of secondary arterial roads that will significantly help in improving the accessibility to the province’s remote villages and help in bringing economic activities to the countryside.

The governor lauded the Aquino administration through the efforts of Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson for giving utmost priority to the rehabilitation and upgrading of roads in the different parts of the country, especially in the country’s poorest provinces, so that economic activities will eventually flourish and be instrumental in improving the living condition of poor families who had been languishing due to poverty over the past several decades.

Apart from the province’s expected economic gains from the better roads in the future, Mayaen underscored the tourism, agriculture and trade and commerce of the ten municipalities, specifically Barlig, Bauko, Besao, Bontoc, Natonin, Paracelis, Sabangan, Sagada, Sadanga and Tadian, will also benefit considering that people will have a lesser time going in and out of their respective places to do business for the improvement of their living condition.