The concreting of the eight-kilometer Bukang Liwayway-Makandring farm-to-market road (FMR) worth P77.6 million in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan will soon solve the decades-long problems of farmers in the area.

Implemented under the I-BUILD component (infrastructure development) of the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP), the FMR subproject will serve cashew, coconut and banana farmers of Barangay Langogan and nearby villages. In addition, farmers who belong to Batac and Tagbanua indigenous peoples (IPs) will also benefit from the project.

Franciso Gabuco, an IP and a farmer leader from Barangay Langogan expressed his community’s gratitude on the implementation of the project during the site visit activity of the PRDP’s First Implementation Support Mission to Southern Luzon Cluster (Luzon B) on August 27, 2015.

“Parang nagbubukang-liwayway na; matatapos na ang aming paghihirap,” Gabuco said. (“It’s like dawning; our hardships will soon end.”)

Gabuco related that in times of hard rain, residents would worry what more could happen to their ragged road, a difficult and dangerous way to pass through.

Community leader Imelda Cervancia meanwhile said that the project, which is expected to be finished by June 2016, would also ease the mobility of students going to school.

Speaking before beneficiaries during the site visit, Samik Sundar Das, team leader of the World Bank implementation support mission, recognized the role of community participation in the success of the project.

“The returns from this road construction will be immense. World Bank’s role has been minimal in this process. We are here today because you could plan, design and start the work. We thank the volunteerism of those who donated [portions of] their land for the project,” Das said.

Some families donated parts of their land for the roadway after being consulted through the concerned barangay local government units and city offices.

The project contractor, Engr. Tederico Tiotangco, said that he has witnessed how the community has participated and how they value the project. He pledged to reciprocate this with “double-time” work on their part. His company will also ensure that coordination meetings with the community are regularly conducted and that compliance with the requirement to obtain skilled labor from the community is observed.

Renato Manantan, Regional Executive Director of DA-Regional Field Office IV-B, on the other hand, encouraged the residents to get involved in the monitoring of the project for the best results.

“If you think that the plans are not followed, please inform the contractor for him to advise the laborers. One of your responsibilities as residents is to ensure that the project is built well. If the quality of the finished product is not good, then you will be the ones to suffer. You should be the ones to be the first who are interested in its good construction,” Manantan said.

The stakeholders were also encouraged to report complaints through the PRDP’s Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM), which ensures that World Bank-prescribed social and environmental safeguards are met.

Meanwhile, Undersecretary Emerson Palad congratulated the Luzon B Project Support Office for its performance, highlighting that the cluster was able to pursue a hefty project portfolio despite having isolated regions to manage.

Palad reported that as of August 14, 2015, Luzon B cluster has already proposed and implemented infrastructure subprojects worth more than P8 billion. And out of the total P10 I-REAP (enterprise development) subprojects awarded with No Objection Letter 1, four are from the cluster.

The PRDP is a six-year national project that aims to establish a modern, inclusive, value-chain oriented and climate-resilient agriculture and fisheries sector. It is implemented through the partnership of the DA, the World Bank, and local government units. A team from the World Bank is currently in the country to visit several subprojects to assess the progress of, and address issues and concerns on the implementation of the PRDP. (Jan P. Dacumos, DA-PRDP)