DAR downloads P100M for 7 road projects in E. Samar town

By JOSE ALSMITH L. SORIA
April 25, 2023

ORAS, Eastern Samar – More than 10 thousand residents from eight farming villages in this third-class municipality are now looking forward to the realization of their longtime dream, a concrete road that would ease their burden in the conveyance not only of goods, but patients as well.

On April 11 this year, House Minority Leader and 4Ps Party-List Representative, Marcelino Libanan, together with Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Eastern Visayas Regional Director Robert Anthony Yu, and Mayor Roy Ador, led the groundbreaking ceremonies in Barangay Saurong for the seven road concreting projects traversing Barangays Iwayan, Minap-os, Nadacpan, Saurong, Agsam, San Eduardo, Alang-alang and Cadi-an.

Yu disclosed that these road concreting projects have a total budget of P100-million taken from the Agrarian Reform Fund (ARF), which President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. restored last year.

Libanan, who hails from this town, facilitated the release of the said fund. In his message, he thanked Agrarian Reform Secretary, Conrado Estrella III, for giving priority to this town.

Yu explained that the role of the DAR does not end in providing lands to landless farmers alone, but will continue to work for the provision of necessary support projects, such as farm-to-market roads, to achieve the vision of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which is an improved quality of life for the agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).

Intervention for farm-to-market roads is among the nine primary goals of Estrella for the next six years, Yu added.

Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II (PARPO II) Danilo Lozada said, the seven farm-to-market road projects with a combined length of 6.8 kilometers are from Barangay Iwayan to Barangay Minap-os, from Barangyay Nadacpan to Barangay Saurong, from Barangay Saurong to Barangay Agsam, from Barangay Agsam to Barangay Iwayan, from Barangay San Eduardo to Barangay Nadacpan, from Barangay Alang-alang to Barangay Cadian, and from Barangay Alang-alang to Barangay Minap-os.

Lozada added, all these are to be implemented under DAR’s Sustainable and Resilient Agrarian Reform Communities (SuRe ARCs) project.

More than 10 thousand residents in these remote villages will be directly benefited, wherein 3,616 of them are agrarian reform beneficiaries.

Barangay Agsam chairperson, Gloria Lomuntad, said “We are happy that our dream will soon be realized. We, the residents of Barangay Agsam, are happy because transporting our products will become easy.

Meanwhile, local media personality, Daisy Belizar, who grew up in Barangay Cadi-an, the farthest among the eight villages, shared that Barangays Agsam, Iwayan, Minap-os, Alang-alang and Cadi-an are upstream villages situated along the Oras River.

According to her, they use “sampan” (a motorized boat with no outrigger) in going to the town proper. It is dangerous for the residents to travel when the water level rises, especially during bad weather, due to the strong current, she stressed.

Belizar reminisced that travel time in the 70s and 80s takes more than four hours to reach the center of the town. Even with the evolution of engines which reduced the travel time now by two hours, the concrete road, once completed, would be the best alternative, she said.