CATBALOGAN, Samar –
The people of this country’s third largest island has to show anew its
solidarity and unity in hoisting this native home. This time, the Samarnons demanded from the government to construct “better roads” in
this province.
The Department of
Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and
Samar solons,
however, said the road construction operations have just started a
month ago.
Officials of the DPWH
said the contract has just been awarded to E.C. De Luna Construction
who previously won the bidding of concreting and asphalting the Phases
1-4, which is from Calbiga-Catbalogan-Calbayog-Allen road. The road
from San Juanico Bridge to Calbiga town has just concreted and
asphalted.
Recently, a “petition
for better roads for
Samar Island”
addressed to Philippine government was launched and a “caravan” to
travel the route from Calbiga to Calbayog City was set on October 17,
2006.
The said caravan and
the on-going petition which is expected to end on September 30 was
both launched and created by the US-based Gugma Han Samar (Love of
Samar) members.
According to Loudette
Avelino of Gugma Han Samar, the roads in the island of Samar are
entirely “destroyed, beyond broken and treacherous.”
Avelino, the one
commissioned to compose the petition said the (roads in Samar) have
caused serious harm, injury and even deaths to countless citizens of
this island for years, which later earned the
Maharlika Highway
a moniker as the “Makaharadlok Highway or Scary Highway”
Avelino and her group
blamed the “bad road condition” as cause of several road-related
accidents in Samar’s maharlika highways.
“A woman traveling on
a motorcycle with her husband was thrown off the cycle when it hit a
rut and went flying off to her death; buses traversing from side to
side avoiding ruts unwittingly veer towards one another crashing
head-on and killing countless people; children heading home from
school hit by vehicles; jeepneys weighed down with passengers on its
roofs hit a bump and people fall off onto the roads and down cliffs to
their deaths; a lawyer from Calbayog City, having suffered a heart
attack was rushed to (a hospital in Tacloban City died en route due to
bad road condition) that it took five hours to travel the
120-kilometer stretch instead of just two hours, are among those
incidents that made us (edgy),” they said.
Aside from deaths and
accidents, the petitioners also claimed the said “rotten roads” have
(also) caused tremendous economic hardships on the citizens of this
3-province island for decades, which resulted to the permanent fixture
of this province in the list of the poorest provinces in the
Philippines.
The petitioners
claimed Samarnons cannot make a decent living with the “hellish” road
conditions and have been living at the very bottom of the economic
heap, as if they were living in the dark ages, adding that “we cannot
even attract tourists to experience and explore the wonders and beauty
of the island.”
“The people of Samar
are mad as hell and we are not going to take it anymore. We demand
first class roads and bridges for the entire island of Samar now,” the
group said in the petition, and calling all the trucking and business
companies, national and local officials, non-government organizations,
church leaders, professors and students to sign the petition said.
In an exclusive
interview with administration lawmaker Catalino “Cata” Figueroa of
Samar 2nd district, he said the “actual work” of the
Calbiga-Catbalogan road project may start anytime now.
He said the move to
petition the national government is “too late and useless because as
of today the project has been started. As of now, “it is not visible
yet as we are still in the process of augmenting heavy equipments and
hiring of manpower.
In fact, he said, “the
first batch of the heavy equipments that would be used in the project
has arrived last month and is now in the batching plant and bunkhouse
in Brgy. Pequit, Paranas, Samar being the central point of the
project.”
According to the
solon, two barges from Iloilo City carrying heavy equipments such as
payloaders, bulldozers, backhoes, dump trucks has already arrived last
month. “First batch pala adto, mayda pa masunod hito,” he added.
Also, payments to
houses and establishments affected under the government’s road right
of way (ARROW) has been processed now and hiring of laborers, heavy
equipment operators, truck drivers, surveyors, foreman, timekeepers,
etc. is now on-going, the solon said.
“I am calling to the
Samarnons to be patient, nandito na yung hinihintay natin, mag uumpisa
na ang construction ng Maharlika highways from Calbiga to Catbalogan,
and subsequently, from Catbalogan to Allen town through me and Rep.
Reynaldo S. Uy,” Figueroa told this publication.
“Let me assure my
constituents that I am not sleeping in my seat in Congress. You may
check how many infrastructures such as executive offices,
farm-to-market roads, irrigations, basketball and covered courts has
been established through me in the second district,” he said adding
that it is better far from the performance, if there is any, of other
provincial leaders in Samar.
Back to Maharlika
project, Rep. Figueroa said the only thing they are waiting now is the
concurrence or “notice to proceed” of the JBIC to start the actual
work, and in fact, “I sought the assistance of NEDA chair Romulo Neri
to “accelerate” that concurrence of the JBIC.”
The solon said the
concurrence may arrive next week, and subsequently, the workers and
equipments will immediately be deployed in Calbiga to Catbalogan – in
time for the scheduled caravan of the residents to have a “better
Samar roads.”
