LINGI-ON: PAVING THE ROAD TO TRANSFORMATION
It’s 7 in the morning. Manong Elvin was awakened by the sound of the struggling vehicle engine forcing its tires to move forward off its seemingly impassable road. This prompted the dozy Manong Elvin to check the disruptive noise that woke him from the warmth of his bed. As he opened the door, the scene of a busy and bumpy-paced road of Barangay Lingion unfolded right before him.
As a hands-on farmer and businessman of many years, Elvin Tabian, 50, worked on his field for almost a decade, hoping to provide for his family’s needs all year round. Half of his integrated space is dedicated to the production of cassava and the other half to the processing of lime to market in identified companies with the self-owned trucks he persistently worked on for years. In the year 2017 to present, his earnings from the production of cassava gave cause for satisfaction as it fulfilled and motivated his hopes and aspirations for himself and the family.
Small beginnings, bumpy roads
Despite his known success, Manong Elvin started from humble beginnings. He began his career working as an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) in Saudi Arabia. However, due to the hardships of being based abroad, he eventually returned to the Philippines with nothing and restarted his life as a motorcycle driver and a balut vendor in 2001. Manong Elven was then keen to explore all options to help build and raise his family in the province.
Similar to other rural communities, one of the problems Manong Elvin encountered in his livelihood was the difficulty to transport his product due to the poor road access and lack of its concretion.
“Halos dili namo madala ang among mga produkto ilabina sa ting-ulan. Kaniadto, lisod kay ang mga lubak-lubak nga dalan […] Kinahanglan usab nga mokontrata kami sa usa ka hauler nga nagpabayad kanamo og taas nga presyo para mo hatod sa among produkto padulong sa merkado (We could hardly transport our produce especially during the rainy season. Before, it was difficult as the bumpy roads affected the quality of our goods. We also needed to contract a hauler who charged us a hefty price),” he expressed.
Farmers and land-owners like Manong Elvin had to live with the rough road conditions for a long time. He can even recall how it was worse for the other residents, including the children.
Farm-to-market roads in many parts of Mindanao were not always smooth and concreted. The roads were bumpy and dusty during summer and muddy during monsoon season — making them dangerous to navigate and causing inconvenience, especially to the laborers.
Making great strides to development
Today, the challenge of the road is already behind them. Lingi-on is proud to showcase the new farm-to-market road in their barangay which paved the way to several opportunities for the residents.
The Government addressed this need through the Conditional Matching Grant to Provinces (CMGP) Program of the Department of the Interior Local Government (DILG), which is an incentive scheme to provinces that demonstrate good performances.
With the program, students were also able to attend school without getting late because of the shorter travel time and improved road quality. Motorcycle accidents are greatly reduced and emergency health care services are now accessible.
In Barangay Lingi-on, Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon, the P74.9-M, 4.8-kilometer road rehabilitation which started in 2019 and completed in January 2021, has significantly improved the community’s economy. Moreso improving the road that has reduced transportation costs and helped boost and prompt delivery of agricultural inputs and products for more than hundreds of households in their community.
“Mapasalamaton mi sa gobyerno na kami nahatagan ani nga proyekto nga mapasemento ang among dalan. Dako kini ug tabang sa among panginabuhian. Karon di nami maglisod ug pagbyahe sa among mga produkto. (We are very much grateful to the Government for giving this project of road rehabilitation and concretion. Now, we no longer have difficulty transporting our products because it has improved.),” Manong Elvin said.
CMGP continues to contribute to the realization of the Ambisyon Natin 2040 and the Build, Build, Build, program of the Administration, by supporting the improvement of core provincial roads and enhancing national-local roads connectivity and accessibility to social services and economic opportunities, to support the sustained inclusive socio-economic progress in the country.
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Like Manong Elvin, with better roads, residents, farmers, and owners are motivated because they have more efficient market access. The resulting increase in production and income improve the quality of lives in remote rural areas, bringing closer to genuine progress. (DILG ORD M. Bacud, P. Felicilda)
