Intermittent rains have hindered the trucks uphill for the planned compaction of the subgrade course of Tiblac-Dulli farm-to-market road (FMR) in Ambaguio, Nueva Vizcaya. The road work has peaked at 5.49% of the overall, and the engineers are faced with inclement weather, typical of the BER months. Work continues agonizingly but no negative slippage has registered in the charts.

Aside from the rain, it is cold in Ambaguio as its climate is similar to the summer capital of the Philippines. The place is a collection of mountain ranges, rivers and lakes. All of these posed an obstacle in conquering the terrain and the completion of the subbase course.

“The recurring downpour slowed the completion of the subgrade course. With this, instead of remaining idle, we have continued ahead of schedule on roadway excavation uphill. We have taken a foothold as the subbase course has been established by 300 meters,” Engr. Norman Romero, Rural Infrastructure Engineer said. Further, they placed the compactor on standby and every time the rain abated, they gave the go signal for the technician to operate.

The 8.4 kilometers-subproject was only a trail, hard for two vehicles to meet when workers started clearing and grubbing. Then came the backhoes with their gigantic buckets chewing and chipping earth on the rugged mountainsides while precipitous ravines gawk below.

The road snakes from station zero in barangay Tiblac, climbing in the twist and turns towards barangay Dulli and crossing a part of sitio Labbi. Here, plantations of tomatoes sat proudly, with scattered swathes of land planted with ginger, snap pole beans, cabbage, and sweet potato. Ambaguio is the top tomato producing municipality in Nueva Vizcaya.

The town, nestled between mountains is home to the Kalanguya and Ayangan tribes. The hardy people who have preserved  their customs and traditions planted high-value crops on the mountainsides. Since 1966, they have emerged victorious carving vegetable orchards –cabbage, tomato, snap pole beans, squash, and potato, which seem to reach the blue skies.

“The topography is a conglomeration of various relief and landforms characterized by varying slope. It is basically mountainous dominated by very steep slopes of above 50% encompassing an area of around 20 hectares or 94.24% of the total area. The lowest slope of 0 to 3% covers an area of 903 or around 4.23% of the total area. It is rolling, mountainous terrain,” Engr. Gregory Madanay, Project Engineer said.

“The existing surface type of the subproject is mostly earth surface with existing paved sections. Parts of the existing paved roads are dilapidated and are programmed in the subproject to be removed and replaced,” Madanay said.

The completion of the 133.7 million pesos-worth FMR will ease the burden of the farm folks in transporting their products to the trading posts and market sites. Moreover, it will be very significant for the pupils and teachers who agonizingly trek to school during the rainy season.

The road construction has 481 days towards completion and with the equipment on full throttle meeting timelines, Engr. Norman Romero, Engr. Gregory Madanay and Engr. Clifford Balawa from the Municipal Local Government Unit (MLGU) sat for another session of brainstorming for another week of conquering the terrain.

“If we need to spend our holidays here, we will,” the three engineers said.

Ambaguio is the first MLGU in Nueva Vizcaya to partner with the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP). Under the Project’s sharing scheme, eighty percent (80%) of the total project cost (TPC) comes from the World Bank, ten percent (10%) from the Government of the Philippines through the Department of Agriculture (DA) and ten percent (10%) comes from the LGU.

“The FMR will lift the spirits of the indigenous people here in Ambaguio towards agriculture. It will lessen the cost of transportation and the production of our crops. We have been burdened in transporting our products down to Bayombong. In the same manner that it is difficult to bring supplies and basic household needs up here,” Jun Dulawan Dulawag, a barangay official said.

Engr. Clifford Balawa, MLGU engineer, he has high hopes the work will be finished before the due date.

“It is a matter of having one full week of sunshine and we will be ready for the concrete pouring,” he said.

“Meantime, we have to complete other scheduled work following a detailed engineering design. Planning is all it takes,” he furthered as the three of them entered the engineer’s quarters. (Dr. Ferdinand N. Cortez, RPCO2 InfoACE)