A farm-to-market road (FMR) sub-project implemented under the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) has brought multiple benefits to the residents—majority of whom are Muslims—of two villages in Buug, Zamboanga Sibugay.

The 3.6-kilometer FMR worth P46.9 million traverses two barangays—Pamintayan and Bawang—where Muslim settlers have long established communities.

Lorena Ampuan of Pamintayan village recalled that what they had before was a mere foot trail, which could become muddy during the rainy season.

“We pitied our children when going to school—the school is quite far—especially when it was raining. Their uniforms would get wet and their shoes soiled,” Lorena said.

Lorena added that when they heard that their road would be concreted over, they were doubtful at first since it took months before the construction started.

“Now [that the road is almost finished], walking to and from the school is no longer difficult for our children—they can attend school even when it’s raining. When going to the town proper, we no longer have to walk as vehicles can now reach our houses,” Lorena said.

Muslim elder Alim Ampuan said that the trail could not pass for a road—calling it a dalan-dalan—where only carabao- or horse-driven sleds could pass through, not motorized vehicles.

The 82-year-old Islam leader added that they had sought for the concreting of the dalan-dalan 13 years ago but it is only now that their efforts have materialized.

Alim recalled that immediately before the project started, they used to pay as much as P25 per sack for the hauling of copra using carabao. It also took a carabao 30 minutes to haul copra to the highway crossing.

“But today, using motorcycle, it is now very easy for us to transport our copra. Sometimes, copra buyers would even come over here and get our products,” he said.

Alim added that besides the improvement in transporting their products to the market, the FMR has also catered to their other needs.

“It took us a long time erecting our mosque as bringing construction materials here would take some time. As soon as the road concreting started we also erected our new mosque,” he said.

Alim likewise shared that with the new road, they were able to solicit pipes and tap water from a nearby spring to their residence.

The road, currently 83 percent completed, also serves Barangays Pulog, Lantawan, Compostela and San Jose.

Among the commodities supported by the FMR are coconut and rubber, as well as seafood sourced from the nearby coastal communities.

The PRDP is a six-year World Bank-assisted project that aims to improve rural economy by operationalizing local-level convergence among agricultural stakeholders, synergizing programs and projects for modern, climate-smart and market-oriented agro-fishery sector. The Project also seeks to benefit the greater segment of farmers and fishers, including marginalized subsectors such as ethnic and religious minorities. ### (Jan P. Dacumos, PRDP-NPCO InfoACE Unit; Remai S. Alejado, PRDP-RPCO 9 InfoACE Unit)