The livelihood of the people from the upland areas, particularly those of the farmers, are expected to make an upturn with the construction of the 75 lineal meters Sicaba Bridge and 40 lineal meters Dalayapan Bridge along the Rehabilitation of Barangay Caduha-an to Sitio Aluyan Farm-to-Market Road (FMR) in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental.
The recent inauguration and turnover ceremony of the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) subprojects to the stakeholders signified the official endorsement of the government and counterpart agencies-funded bridges to the public along with the responsibilities on their operation and maintenance aspects.
The P23,446,412.56-million Dalayapan Bridge and P36,937,960.97-million Sicaba Bridge were seen to reduce travel time of the commuters by 56%, reduce hauling cost by at least 30%, increase land valuation of agricultural land area and attract investors for agri-industrial development, and develop new opportunities as new agricultural lands for rice, corn, and sugarcane after five years of implementation.
In fact, its emerging benefits were already evident while the projects are just recently turned over and officially presented to the public. Barangay Captain Joebert P. Javier of Caduhaan opened up how difficult their situation is without the PRDP road and bridges before.
“This is really the dream of the people in the upland areas to have access to livelihood and basic necessities. Before, when these roads and bridges were not here yet, they only came to the town proper at least twice a week by walking,” said Javier.
He also expressed his thanks and assured that they will maintain the bridges under their utmost care.
“Now, we are very thankful to have all these projects of the government through PRDP. Rest assured that we will do our best to preserve these for the next generations to come,” he further stated.
Meanwhile, Secretary William D. Dar has also identified Cadiz City to have a potential for the implementation of agri-industrialization, considering its vast land area conducive for agricultural advancement.
“I have seen the potential of Cadiz not only in the production of sugarcane but eventually, we can implement agri-industrialization,” Dar emphasized in his speech during the ceremonial turnover.
“When we say agri-industrial, we are not only looking at the production but also the value-chain system- from production to increasing productivity, to processing, to value-adding and even marketing. These are our new perspectives and just like these new infrastructures which are the 4.446-kilometer FMR with two bridges, these are big help to uplift the livelihood of the people here,” he added.
The recently-inaugurated bridges are just among of the PRDP subprojects that were granted to Negros Occidental. As to date, the province has been allocated with a total of P420,386,530.57 worth of funds, both for completed and pipelined subprojects under the PRDP. # # #(AGPadilla/InfoACE6 | Photos Courtesy: PSO- Visayas Cluster)
