TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol (PIA)—How far can your P 62 million go?
Around 12.676 kilometers of standard 5 meter concrete farm to market roads (FMR) with four bridges, that is how far Bohol’s P62 million leverage fund goes, in the rehabilitation and upgrading of the Desamparados Calape to Tabuan Antequera FMR.
Thanks to the Department of Agriculture’s Provincial Roads Development Project (DA-PRDP), Bohol’s leverage fund gets another P62 million as national government counterpart, to prop up the P487,130,489.20 share from the World Bank loan, which substantially funds the P608,913,111.50 road upgrading and rehabilitation.
The single biggest project of the PRDP to date, the project is the Government of the Philippines grant to Bohol for a 20% equity, explains Planning and Development Officer Atty John Titus Vistal, who added that the PRDP had given over P2B funds for FMRs to Bohol.
This too after the national government contracted a loan with the World Bank for the country’s PRDP projects.
The project looks at agricultural value chains to see how it can improve access to markets through its FMRs as a way to improve farmers living conditions and the economy of the general area.
Within the area traversed by the road are 1925.9 hectares of existing farms and agri production areas while another 1697.45 hectares are potential production areas in the 23 barangays within the project catchment, which could be productive now that access is facilitated and agri services can be had .
“It is not just the Boholanos but all the Filipinos would be paying for this,” Bohol Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado explained to the community during the groundbreaking ceremonies in Desamparados.
Himself familiar with the terrain that the road upgrade would cover, Aumentado also knew that within the forsaken area were forests that used to be harbor sites of communist insurgents.
Some communities here, owing to scarce government presence, became strongly influenced by the rebels.
For the governor, whose administration has offered local integration programs to assist former rebels back to the folds of the law, the road access can facilitate faster government services, which the communities here have been deprived.
A road project that traverses through Desamparados, Ulbujan, Labuon, Binogawan, Cabudboran and Cabayugan in Calape to Tabuan in Antequera, the stretch also features three timber bridges and one concrete bridge that would be refurbished, according to Bohol Provincial Engineer Camilo Gasatan, Jr.
It is good that we have this project, because, we at the Provincial Engineers Office could hardly maintain that road, the rotting timber bridges could not even support our maintenance crew dump trucks, he pointed out.
The 5 meter wide and 0.20 meter thick pavements can free Bohol engineers of the manpower and resources for its annual maintenance.
Conceptualized, studied and found feasible, pushed for funding and now in the brink of implementation, the FMR here is a product of many local administrations from Aumentado, Chatto, Yap and Aumentado.
The road project is set from completion by May or June in 2027. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
