Building roads to the future of mountain living

CURRENT ecologists view mountains like sacred shrines. In Southeast Asia, we defend road and trail building in the mountains as economic structures that are “painfully beautiful.” In this pursuit, we promote balance. It is necessary to be “cruel to be kind.”

I sometimes view things like an ecologist or environmentalist does and it helps to look at the road for its economic benefits. In the end, a mountaineer thinks on his own merit – pursuing what is best for mountain living.

Roads and road building in the mountains are introduced to the Cordillera from the west.

I am quite certain Kennon Road was the first road project built in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR). The project was originally known as Benguet Road. Its construction begun in 1903 under Col. Lyman Walter Vere Kennon of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and opened for travel on January 29, 1905.

Before Kennon Road, the natives traveled the Cordillera mountain ranges by foot. During the 333 rule of the Spaniards in the Philippines from 1521-1898, they built an intricate network of foot and horse trails. Some of these trails may have long been converted as part of the region’s current road network.

In Benguet Province, an obscure remnant of the lost Spanish Trails can yet be found in Atok, Benguet. It is known as the Osocan Spanish Trail with its trailhead located between Km. 46 and 47. A portion of the trail can be seen from the Halsema Highway, or at the highest point marker of the Philippine road system.

The lofty wilderness interior and the richness of the Cordillera, its people, minerals and natural resources was first brought to the world through these ancient trails. The Spaniards opened the first large mining operation in Benguet, particularly Lepanto Mines in the 15th century.

After the Spaniards, Americans, Japanese, and Chinese took over the building of roads purely for the extraction of resources. The Americans like the Spaniards also engaged in missionary and education work besides mining and natural resources extraction The Japanese and Chinese were mainly farmers who introduced vegetable farming. Later, the Chinese were involved in logging and mining.

Long after the Second World War, Filipinos have taken over the thrusts and ventures that exploit the Cordillera mountain ranges of its natural wealth and resources. Will development pursuits change for the better?

There are new emerging ways of looking at governance in the Philippines, and for that matter, the Cordillera Administrative Region.

The current Administration of President Rodrigo Duterte is pushing for a Federal System of government. It has emboldened current leaders in the Cordillera to propose the region’s autonomy position under a federalized set-up of governance.

In my view, both governance systems would evolve a better philosophy, purpose and objective for road building in the Cordillera as home for both indigenous peoples and other Filipinos permanently domiciled in the region. If you have the funds, would you build a home with temporary materials and means like that of an invader or a corrupt official?

But way ahead of this development, reform has actually crept into the road building strategies in the Cordillera region.

For instance, over the last decade, the DA’s Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resources Management Project (CHARMP) has been constructing farm-to-market roads with the active involvement of its beneficiaries from planning until the road is turned-over to them. The beneficiaries were also trained and encouraged to monitor the implementation of the road construction project.

Nowadays, the cost per road project supported under CHARMP has tremendously been increased on a grand scale under the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP), another foreign-assisted project of the DA. This time, the quality and standards, and road length are better. For example, a PRDP road project all throughout is cemented. Under CHARMP, only critical sections are cemented, the rest are weather roads.

As agricultural projects, roads are part of both Projects’ infrastructure sub-components that promote the development of agriculture and natural resources. In effect, you look at roads and build them to support and sustain agricultural livelihoods and forest and watershed resources, without which, agriculture cannot thrive. Mountain roads should not lead us to a wagered future but intricate pathways to thriving communities, inhabited by happy people managing sustainable agriculture and natural resources.

On March 23, 2017, I am headed to Atok, Benguet for the launching of the Improvement of the Jose Mencio farm-to-market road (FMR). It is the first PRDP road project to be launched in Benguet.

The rehabilitation of this rural access road will directly benefit the communities in barangays Caliking, Topdac, Poblacion, and parts of Abiang, Naguey and Pasdong, all in Atok town. The road can also serve as an alternative route for the municipalities of Kapangan and Kibungan.

The project has a total length dimension of 11.905 kilometers and 4 meters in width. It will be concreted from end to end with slope protection structures and canal linings. It will also have its side railings. Its initial estimated total cost was Php 205,004 million. The feasibility study of the project has found it to be environmentally and socially sound, technically feasible and economically viable.

On that note, project implementation will follow rigid supervision strictly adhering to standard and timelines. We can only pray for the best results, as the success of these roads will greatly contribute to a better life for the next generation of Cordillerans and other Filipinos in Northern Luzon. our travel. Being millennials from Itogon, Benguet, Kiangan Ifugao and Mexico Pampanga, they discovered for themselves that the Bagos are all over the Ilocos coast mostly within the hill sides of the Cordillera highlands. They are adaptive to both the culture and way of life of the uplands as well as of the lowlands. It means that they can speak Ilocano well and Kankanay too which is spoken in northern Benguet and Mountain Province.

A good example of a Bago is Mayor Mauricio Gampik Domogan who hails from Quirino, Ilocos Sur which was once called Patiakan or Anggaki. I was only struck when the elder from Suyo who claimed to be a village chief said that the term Bago Tribe came only as a result of the electoral party list system promulgated in past elections where representatives of community organizations were included in the ballots. Though that was only his opinion, there is merit to what he said especially if we dig deeper into the group’s written history referring to the hill side dwellers as the Bagong Kristiano.