Zamboanga Sibugay is one of the provinces in Zamboanga Peninsula which obtained support for its 18 infrastructure subprojects worth P1.169 billion under the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP).

The province already completed 10 farm-to-market roads (FMR’s) worth P644.26 million while the remaining eight (8) subprojects worth P524.34 million are still on process or under implementation.

According to Deputy Project Director Engr. Danilo T. Alesna, aside from the projects under the original loan, the additional financing from the World Bank allowed the Project to cater to new proposals from the provinces.

“PRDP is now on its 6th year of implementation and as you can see, we still have many subprojects that are about to start or still undergoing FS or DED. These are actually new subprojects under our Additional Financing. So far, we already have completed many subprojects under the original loan with a few on-going subprojects waiting for completion,” said DPD Alesna.

Currently, Zamboanga Sibugay has five subprojects under the additional financing. These include the 3.06 kilometer Concreting of San Antonio-Balocon – San Isidro Farm-to-Market Road worth 57.8 million in the Municipality of Titay; 3.42km Road Concreting of Agutayan Farm-to-Market Road worth P90.7 million in the Municipality of Buug; 6.15km Concreting of Gandaan – San Jose Farm-to-Market Road worth P102.9 million in the Municipality of Olutanga; 5.04km Rehab/Concreting of Kawilan-Bolingan FMR worth P84.43 million; and 9.14km Rehab/Concreting of Silingan – Sto. Rosario – Taruc- Siawang – R1 FMR worth P176.29 million in the Municipality of Roseller Lim.

One of the beneficiaries of the completed Bagong Silang-Magsaysay Farm-to-Market Road in the Municipality of Siay shared the improvements they experienced after the FMR construction was done.

“Before, our living condition here was very difficult. We had to hike going to Batu (another barangay) for three hours while carrying produce like our vegetables,” said famer Rosalinda R. Ito.

Currently, residents no longer experience the hassle and difficulty when travelling and transporting their goods because of a cemented road.

“Now, our travel time from here to Poblacion is shortened to 40 minutes. Before, we used to spend P120.00 for our fare while today it is lowered to P80.00 only,” she said.

She also added that concreted road in their barangay encouraged more settlers to build their houses. (Joy Montecalvo)