By Gina Dizon
SAGADA, Mountain
Province -- After all is said and done, construction of the controversial P100
million Sabangan-Sagadaroad shall barely reach Sagada.
The project funds
shall end road works just above Barangay
of Taccong, Sagada from Ditio Dawdawan of Nakagang on to the
ascending Madepdeppas route of Sabangan overlooking Taccong.
The P100 million road
shall end barely touching this tourist
town and a municipality with its Sangguniang Bayan officials who started the
proposal to extend the length of the Dantay-Sagada road to Suyo- Balili exiting
towards the Bontoc-Baguio national road and which eventually became the
Sabangan-Sagada Road.
This brings to question the intention of this Department of
Tourism road priority infrastructure tourism program done in cooperation with
the Department of Public Works and Highways to implement the
project to boost tourism.
District
Engineer Wilbur Likigan of DPWH – Mountain Province District
office estimates the project with widening, concreting
and riprapping of a new two lane Madepdeppas road spans a length
of 4 to 5 kilometers.
That is where the
budgetted P100 million Sabangan- Sagada roads will be used based on a P20-P30
million road expense per kilometer as per DPWH estimates. After a
seven month lingering controversy of where the road project shall start, the
die is cast and the project shall begin in Sabangan towards Taccong, Sagada
with no inch of a kilometer reaching the adjacent barangay of Taccong nearby
Sabangan municipality where one finds the not-much visited beautiful Balangagan
Cave which needs exposure to tourists.
Barangay
officials of southern Taccong and Suyo of Sagada, who must have
been dreaming that the project funds shall reach southern
Sagada shall have to contend to the reality that project funds shall not
reach Taccong when they signed a petition saying they were
aware of the Madepdeppas route reaching the Balangagan
Cave and Pongas Falls of nearby Suyo barangay.
The petition was
reportedly facilitated by staff of the Mayor’s office of the
town. With their signatures, the southern barangay officials apparently did not
favor the Sangguniang Bayan- initiated road exiting towards the existing
Balili-Suyo dirt road.
Said Sabangan-Sagada
road project is soon to start implementation with road works to begin in
Sabangan with the bidding already done at the regional DPWH office.
It all started
with a 2011 resolution from the Sangguniang Bayan of
Sagada requesting DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson for
the extension of the Dantay- Sagada Road from the
road above the much-visited Sumaguing cave to the
existing Suyo- Balili road exiting towards the Bontoc-Baguio Road.
Said resolution was
forwarded to the regional office of the Department of Tourism with DOT regional
director PurificacionMolintas earlier visiting Sagada during the Etag Festival
February 2012 and inspecting the said proposed road on her way to Baguio.
The rest is history
with the approval of a P100 million fund for the Sabangan-Sagada road included
in General Appropriations Act of 2013 and the bidding of said project
reportedly won by a construction company said to be linked with a top Sagada
official’s construction company.
Calisthenics of how
initiated projects become contested shows the best of how DPWH plays with this
kind of location games.
A contractor told this
writer how a proposed and approved plan could be mangled once it is given a
special allotment release order (SARO) and the project site transferred to
another site. I am reminded of the flood control projects along the
Chico River -- the subject of the suspension of seven engineers
of the district office of DPWH-Mt Province some months
back last year, when said officers were found with prima facie
evidence for falsifying documents , grave misconduct and gross
neglect of duty on P102 million flood control projects following
complaint filed by Bontoc resident Rey Sagandoy.
Singson’s order
revealed changing of locations of already identified projects as per SARO
specifications disregarding DPWH guidelines and the Secretary’s approval for
realignment of funds. The re-invitation to bid cited that location of is in
Gonogon, Bontoc instead of Talubin, Bontoc as already indicated in
said SARO. Singson’s order also found omitting Tambingan, Sabangan in said
project Chico river flood control project.
Anyway, the
Madepdeppas route of this long playing Sabangan-Sagada Road controversy
was found to have no tourism site by the validation of the
composite inspection team composed of DOT, NEDA, and DPWH
assisted by the tourism staff of the Mountain Province local
government unit during their November 21 visit of said
proposed tourism road.
A finding which
clearly concluded that the Madepdeppas route was not the road to begin with
in said Sabangan-Sagada road and instead begin following the initial proposal of the SB
of Sagada to have the route lead towards the Suyo-Balili road where
tourism potential activities
including biking, star gazing, cloud catching were noted by composite team
themselves.
A community worker
whom the writer talked to also said she travelled the road most of the time in
her younger years and where she found no tourist come on at
said route -- no waterfalls, no ricefields, no enticing eco trail,
no pools- just mountains to see and that’s all.
The
tourism angle of the convergence fund is the meat of
why said project was proposed in the first place by the
legislative unit of Sagada to the DOT with intentions of propping
up Balangagan Cave aside from serving as an alternative route of the
Dantay-Sagada Road mainly used as the thoroughfare to reach Sagada and
nearby Besao.
Aside from
noting the tourism potential of a place where the proposed road
passes through, the tourism road infrastructure project
prioritization criteria (TRIPPC) of the DOT-DPWH convergence program
basically considers a road leading to a tourist-visited place
with access to accommodations such as hotels, inns and
restaurants.
You will wonder where
one finds accommodations in the Madepdeppas route barely reaching Sagada and
not reaching Balangagan cave as per intentions of a tourism road.
What happened
with DOT Director Molintas’ inspection along the Balili route
and her terming the road as Sabangan- Sagada road as
per TRIPPC and endorsement of the Regional Development Council of said project,
and the validation of the DOT-NEDA-DPWH composite
team findings that there is no tourist spot along the Madepdeppas route
further recommending that project start at the road ending of the
Dantay-Sagada road above Sumaguing cave?
You will wonder
what the criteria are for how the project will finally begin at Sabangan
despite said TRIPPC and the very intention of the DPWH-DOT convergence program
to enhance tourism. One will further wonder where is the trumpeted daan Na
matuwid Ni Presidente Pnoy!
This roller
coaster of string-pulling and influence posing to serve other interests
seemingly has taken the beef of what it is.
Even DPWH
secretary Rogelio Singson who was approached by the Sangguniang
Bayan and who reportedly commented on how the DOT is
being turned round the neck and suspended the regional
DPWH’s bidding of said project has finally conceded in finally
ordering the bidding of the Madepdeppas route reportedly based on
recommendations from the DOT.
This turn of events
leaves proponents and the public to sigh with consolation that tourism funds
shall continue the unfinished road opening of the “Sabangan-Sagada Road” and
the upgrading of the Suyo-Balili road by 2014.
Anyways, it is
interesting to note why the insistence for the Madepdeppas route, a one lane
dirt road that begins at Dawdawan, Nakagang of Sabangan town and ends in
Taccong.
The road ends with the
need of a bridge along the Inakang River to connect Taccong to nearby Suyo on
to SagadaPoblacion where finds a number of tourist accomodation facilities.
The road needs to be
widened and grouted and rip rapped and concreted needing lots of money. As compared to the Balili- Suyo route, the
route only needs concreting and some finishing touches at the road sides.
Engineer Likigan estimates the P100 million upgrading fund will stretch to some
6 to seven kilometers of the already existing Balili-Suyo road.
One contractor said, a
contractor “will get more money” constructing a new two lane road that needs
rip rapping and grouting and widening with concreting. Whatever that is,
I am left wondering. As compared to smooth concreting of an already
opened road, nothing much can be gained.”
I am reminded of the
so many rip rapping works done along the Halsema Highway year after year. Rip
rapping that seemingly never ends with new and renewed ripraps suddenly being
constructed again. How ripraps become break-cracking endeavors is something I
can’t help relating to the image of DPWH being a graft and corrupt ridden
department in Philippine government.
With the local and
national elections around the corner, this DOT-DPWH convergence program to
enhance tourism has faded like a dream.
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