The World Bank has issued its approval for Central Luzon’s I-BUILD subproject dubbed as the Improvement of Bubulong Malake-Bulusukan- Bubulong Munti Bohol na Mangga Farm-to-Market Road in Bulacan, successfully marking it as the region’s pilot subproject under the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP).

The No Objection Letter 2, dated September 14, 2015, was received by the National Project Coordination Office and was forwarded to the Project Support Office (PSO) Luzon A, signalling for the start of the construction of the subproject which shall be awarded to the joint venture of A.R Lustre Construction with ARL Construction.

With an amount of P97,555,310.87, the FMR will traverse four barangays namely, Bubulong Malake, Bulusukan, Bubulong Munti and Bohol na Mangga in the municipality of San Ildefonso. The subproject seeks to decrease the transportation and vehicle maintenance cost of the farmers, as well as to provide employment opportunities to the local residents of the influence barangays.

Specific measures were set by the World Bank for the efficiency of project implementation. Tight monitoring is imposed to ensure that key personnel are mobilized within one month from issuance of the Notice to Proceed and are not demobilized until full completion of the sub-project.

In addition, the contractor is obliged to submit 50m distanced-geotag photos taken at every 10^th of the month and during the execution of the claim of payment and the submission Statement of Value of Work to the local government unit. (Kayla Arceo, InfoACE PSO Luzon A)

Farmers in Barangays Bubulong Malake, Bulusukan, Bubulong Munti and Bohol na Mangga usually pay P3.00 per kilo as vehicle rent in order to transport their products to the urban market.