Can the 8ID now build roads inside Basey’s Settlement area?

By CHITO DELA TORRE
May 31, 2010

Ramon “Rams” Viojan Lancanan, son of Basey, Samar ex-mayor Pedro Lancanan, sent in the full text of his thanks and appreciation to all Basaynons, for their having reelected him as their number one  member of the sangguniang bayan.

“Maupay nga adlaw sangkay ug haimo minahal nga pamilya.

“Natapos na an eleksyon, an imo botos ug kinasing-kasing nga pagsuporta ha akon nagbunga hin kaupayan – an akon kandidatura pagka-konsehal nagminalamposon. Ha ngaran han ako pamilya, nagpapa-salamat ako haimo, imo pamilya, mga urupod, ug kasangkayan han bulig nga iyo ginhatag.

“Ako an iyo boses ha konseho. Waray makakatupong nga materyal nga butang han imo bulig ha akon, kundi an akon maihahatag haimo an maupay nga pagtrabaho ug matangkod nga pagserbisyo ha konseho Basay. Uopayon ko pa an akon pagtrabaho ngan pagpangita pama-agi para mapa-upay an kahimtang han haton Bungto ug igkasi Basaynon.

“Maglipay kita sangkay kay ini nga eleksyon nga bag-o la naglabay, KAMO AN NAGDA-OG. An iyo ungara an natuman.

“Inu-otro ko, SALAMAT hin madamu han iyo bulig.”

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Basey needs serious government attention for more or less 10,000 hectares of its lands that President Marcos’ Proclamation 2292 converted into a Settlement area on May 21, 1983.   These lands first needs hard road surfaces that can withstand rains, carabao sleds and 4 to 10-wheeler vehicles, but first, for now, roads must be constructed to force every sensible government official to understand why the Settlement area should now receive all the development interventions that it needs from, first and foremost, the national and provincial governments.

In the meantime, the 8th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army, and its field units, may want to spearhead the road building.  As the military moves in, it may bring in medical and dental services and give free medicines to the people that spell out life in the ten barrios that either border or are found right inside the Settlement area.  Yes, that the military can do, even if there is truth to its claim that the whole of Basey is already nearing the stage of being cleared of communist insurgents.  There is more reason for the military to do that – as in fact it should to every town that it “saves” from communist insurgency.  The military must sustain the “gains” it made, such as making a locality “safe” from movements and activities of members of the New People’s Army, the Communist Party of the Philippines, the National Democratic Front, and all their allies and front organizations.  Sustaining that gain would mean ensuring that people in the locality, every citizen, every government official and every public servant can freely move, without fear and without threat from any anti-military individual or unit, to introduce, initiate and sustain development activities.  But that can only be made possible through roads that will connect the villages that are isolated by a series of hills, mountains, rivers and creeks.  The roads will make sense.

The local government unit of Basey, through assistance from the Asian Development Bank, started building a “circumferential road” that partly links short distances on the southern border of the Settlement.  That road, though has never been contemplated to be a part of any support service intended for the thousands of lands and supposed agrarian reform beneficiaries inside the Settlement area.

The Settlement needs other roads, that may include the distances between Villa Aurora and Baloog, Baloog and Manlilinab, Manlilinab and Mabini, Villa Aurora and Cancaiyas, Cancaiyas and Cogon, sitio Rizal (of Bulao) and sitio Lanaga (of Cancaiyas), sitio Rizal and Manlilinab, sitio Roño (of Old San Agustin) and sitio Burabod (of Mabini), Villa Aurora and sitio Ogbok (abandoned due to NPA and military operations) to Mount Kalubiganan through Mount Tagpuro Daku via Palas,  Baloog to its sitio Talandawan, Manlilinab to its abandoned sitios, and Cogon to its sitio Guinpongdoan.  A road from Villa Aurora to Baloog via Palas-Tagpuro Daku can make Baloog directly connected to the poblacion of Basey.  Right now, Baloog is isolated from Basey.  Today, Baloog can be travelled to only through a broken road from barrio Magsaysay of Sta. Rita town – which is an insult to the people of Basey.

The 8ID of the Philippine Army has been known also for its road construction projects, except that it has not yet built even a meter long of a road inside the Settlement area.  It must be remembered, during a commitment forum held early in 2007 in Basey’s downtown section it was asked to commit its engineering battalion for these road building needs.  It did commit some assistance but which assistance did not materialize between that time and lately because certain forms of civil government action was never pursued.

It was fine to note that the military, through the 63rd Infantry (Innovator) Battalion, based in Opong, Catubig, Northern Samar and the 803rd Infantry Brigade extended last March 17 medical and dental consultations to the towns of San Roque and Catubig, serving a total of 1,454 children, adults and elderly people – 747 of them from San Roque (with 147 treated of their dental problems) and from 707 Catubig (with 168 free tooth extractions).  The MEDCAP was an initiative of the national government through the People’s Government Mobile Action (PAGCOR PGMA).  The 63IB also held a pulong-pulong in Jangtud, Palapag, Northern Samar five days earlier than the MEDCAP but much later after the army discovered a rebels’ camp near the town and recovered firearms.  Note though that 12 days after the Opong MEDCAP, the 63IB, with the help of former rebel “Nick”, recovered from two camps in McKinley of Catarman, Northern Samar, various ammunitions and materials used by the NPA.