ARARO assails DPWH

Press Release
By ARARO
September 27, 2007

QUEZON CITY, Philippines  –  The Alliance for Rural and Agrarian Reconstruction (ARARO) labeled as irresponsible the comment of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) on the feasibility study of the road and proposed bridge that will connect the two provinces of Eastern and Northern Samar.

According to the DPWH Feasibility Center’s document entitled “Feasibility Study Report- North-Eastern Samar Inter-Provincial Road”, the construction of the Arteche-Lapinig Bridge is not economically viable because of low traffic.

”You cannot expect a heavy traffic on a highway that leads to a dead end. Obviously the study fails to appreciate the benefits it will bring to the travelers once the bridge is in place,” says Bong Cainday, ARARO spokesman.

“To continue ignoring the urgency of completing the existing Samar’s national highway and the Arteche-Lapinig Bridge that will link the three Samar provinces reduces government sincerity in implementing socio-infrastructure development program in that most backward part of the country” adds Mr. Cainday.

Samar is the Philippines’ third largest island composed of three provinces and five congressional districts with many rivers and tributary waters cutting through municipal and provincial boundaries such as the Mabini River that separates the towns of Arteche in Eastern Samar and Lapinig of Northern Samar.

Cainday said that once the bridge is completed, travel time from Arteche to Lapinig would be cut to only fifteen minutes from the present two to three hours of perilous cruising in the Pacific Ocean; and the cost of transportation would be a relief in itself.  There have been many incidents in the past that boaters plying Lapinig-Arteche ended up in Taiwan; while many others failed to return home.

At present, residents has to go through other Northern Samar towns then to Western Samar just to go to Southern towns of Eastern Samar like Borongan or Guiuan and vice versa.

The proposed Arteche-Lapinig Bridge is hailed by the local population for its positive impact on commerce and the relief it would give to travelers and the unquantifiable economic benefits to the citizens of the adjoining communities.