Leonarda R. Nisnisan recalled how farmers like her in their community had to find all the means and ways to transport their products going to the market despite the lack of better road in Dampalan, Lopez Jaena.

“Those years without this concrete road had been very difficult for us. We have to walk from the mountain going to our farm and most of the time we stumbled when crossing the muddy and slippery road in this area. Even our carabao could only bring around two sacks of our harvest because it also could not endure heavy loads,” said Nisnisan.

She added that the lack of concreted road was also the main reason why there were not much vehicle coming to their barangay and why the transportation cost was higher.  

“Before, motorcycle did not regularly ply to this area especially on wet season. If there were trucks, they still could not reach our barangay because of the road condition and we still need to use our carabao to bring our products closer to the truck,” she added.

Luzaran Brgy. Captain Heber A. Balangao even compared the condition of their road to an irrigation because the water flow on the unpaved road which caused many accident among the habal-habal drivers.

But with the rehabilitation and concreting of the 2.595 kilometers farm-to-market road, which cost  P25 million connecting the communities of Brgy. Dampalan and Luzaran, farmers and residents here finally see more opportunities to come.

“Before, it would take us half-day to travel going to town because of the rough road. Now that we have this PRDP road, it will only take us 1 hour to travel going to Plaridel and our transportation lowered from P70.00 per sack to P30.00,” said Dampalan Brgy. Captain Tony M. Dahili.

Through this FMR, residents here now have an easy and convenient access to mode of transportation including goods and services.

According to Danilie B. Cocson, principipal of Luzaran Elementary School, the completed road has a positive impact on the attendance of their students and this also inspired them to do some beautification in their school.

“This concrete road really has a big help in the increase of our enrolment. Every day we have a perfect attendance of our student and we are even branded as school with no records of absenteeism. The teachers here also find relief in their daily transportation. We even decided to paint the walls and gate of our school since we already have a beautiful road. We think that it is also nice that passers-by will see a beautiful site along the way,” said Cocson.

The construction of this FMR started last February 2, 2017 and was completed last March 8, 2018. This was turned over recently to the Local Government of Lopez Jaena and now serving the 596 household.

For the maintenance and operation of the road, barangay officials of the two barangays are having a bayanihan once a month for the cleaning of the road as well as the drainage system. They are also planning to craft local ordinances that would help maintain the road such as load limit of each passing vehicle. (Joy M. Montecalvo)

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