“Bad roads”

“BAD roads, bad roads!!”

These were the protest words often spoken by members of the American Peace Corps assigned in Short Cuts’ hometown in the mid-seventies. Short Cuts was then the town executive of his town during that period.

Every time the same peace corps was with Short Cuts’ trip to the different barangays of the town, “bad roads, bad roads”, were the usual comments that he could hear.

The words most often spoken by the peace corps struck Short Cuts’ mind. And, it surprised him to the utmost.   

Imagine, even if we travelled on a section of a concrete pavement of the national road at Short Cuts’ hometown, the same “bad roads, bad roads” words were always uttered. However, Short Cuts, as the town executive, never mince any word of protest on what he heard.

He just kept silent.

Then, in the last year of Short Cuts’ first term as a regular member of the provincial board of Bohol sometime in 1992, Short Cuts had a chance to be in the United States of America. He was invited Guest Speaker in the reunion of Bilarnon International, an aggrupation of former residents of the Municipality of Bilar, Bohol and now permanently residing at America.

So that on a certain date of that particular year, Short Cuts had to take the plane from Manila to Los Angeles, California.

Considering that the reunion activity was to be held three days after Short Cuts’ arrival in California, Short Cuts’ host invited him to a pleasure trip to the State of Nevada. Without hesitation, Short Cuts obliged to the invitation.

So, in the early morning of the following day after Short Cuts’ arrival in California, his hosts, (husband and wife), and Short Cuts left for Nevada with the male host as the driver. On a family-owned vehicle the trio arrived Nevada for almost seven hours.

Although the trip took so many hours on a concrete pavement, Short Cuts never regretted for such a tour. In the first place, that was the first time that he visited the place, and secondly, that was the first and only time to witness a very wide and long stretch of desert lands in the travel to and from the State of Nevada.                   

And, in the evening of that same day that Short Cuts and company arrived Nevada, Short Cuts could hardly sleep. What struck into the mind of Short Cuts was the “bad roads, bad roads” statement of his American Peace Corps years back at his hometown.

For it is indeed true that in Short Cuts’ travel to Nevada, hardly could he feel of any jerk or jolt of the automobile they were riding on.  

So, what could be the difference in travelling on a concrete road in America and travelling on same concrete road in the Philippines?   

There could be a great whale of difference!

To Short Cuts, only the engineers have the mind and not the lawyers on this issue!

Short Cuts is easily reminded of this because of an ongoing repair of a concrete road section of a national highway in Valencia. And, this is contra distinguished from the repair of a concrete road section of a national highway connecting LGUs Balilihan and that of Batuan.

Instead of repairing the concrete road at Balilihan and Batuan by using bags of cement, asphalt mixture is being placed on top of the old cement road.

And, the travel on this road length is now very smooth – no more jerks nor jolts.  

Can the Balilihan-Batuan road repair be duplicated in Valencia, engineers?