SECONDARY NATIONAL ROADS DEVELOPMENT PROJECT MILLENNIUM ROAD TO PROGRESS
ALMOST half of the grant from Millennium Challenge Corporation, or $214.44 million, went to the Secondary National Roads Development Project (SNRDP) for the reconstruction/rehabilitation of the 222-kilometer Wright-Taft-BoronganGuiuan Road in Samar and Eastern Samar, two of the country’s poorest provinces. The scale of the road is almost the distance between Manila and Baguio.
The road segment, which passes through 14 municipalities and one city, is the main passage between the two provinces, and improving the infamously rundown road would help lower transport costs and travel time and, at the same time, open up new possibilities and new markets. There are about 300,000 project beneficiaries along and around the communities in the SNRDP roads.
MCA-P divided the SNRDP into four contract packages with each having its own contractors and timelines. The implementing agency partner was the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), led by Secretary Rogelio L. Singson. A consultant was also put on board to assist in ensuring that the road adheres to international standards and would be finished on time.
Notably, the collaboration of MCA-P and DPWH prudently used the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s model for predicting project risks and put in place climate-proofing measures in planning and designing the SNRDP.
As such, the project was able to withstand several storms, the biggest of which were Typhoon Yolanda in November 2013 and Typhoon Ruby in December 2014. It also managed to recover from an attack by rebel forces in a project site in CP4, as peace and order was soon restored with the necessary support from local and national government.
MCA-P also utilized innovations in the road rehabilitation project. For one, it adopted an in-situ asphalt recycling technology that answered the need for cost-effective and safe pavement construction. Another is the use of indigenous materials for slope protection which, in turn, promoted the putting up of a common facility for making coconets using coconut fiber.
The people of Samar and Eastern Samar were grateful and fully supported the project. They reaped significant benefits from its implementation, not least of which is the number of jobs created for both skilled and unskilled labor. With the new roads, industry and commerce have improved within the two provinces as well as with nearby provinces in Eastern Visayas.
Of this, Secretary Singson says, “SNRDP means bringing the connectivity of the people of Samar and Eastern Samar to the major centers.”
Just as significant as local employment is MCA-P’s introduction of its Social and Gender Integration Plan (SGIP) which encouraged women to also take active part in the project — not only in sieving sand or acting as flag wavers, but even as
trained carpenters and welders.
The attention given to the gender issue also brought forth an antiTrafficking in Persons (TIP) program that the DPWH has now adopted in all its projects nationwide. The SNRDP was identified as a TIP hot spot due to the nature of activities and individuals involved in the project. So, the project stakeholders embarked on a massive anti-TIP campaign.
Because making lives better is really the goal, MCA-P ensured that no one was worse off because of the project’s implementation. MCA-P conducted consultations in the 14 municipalities and one city for project-affected entities (PAEs), and made certain that the owners of structures displaced by the project would be justly compensated for the inconvenience.
Impact on the environment was also properly assessed and mitigated by a Tree Replacement Program which entailed planting 100 seedlings for every tree cut — which translates to planting 772,900 tree seedlings around the project sites. For this Program, the DPWH obtained the services of the DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiaries in planting the trees to provide them additional income.
To ensure sustainability and maintenance of the road after the Compact ends, DPWH, together with DSWD and MCA-P, prepared an innovative Community-Managed Road Maintenance Program which “trained and capacitated community microenterprises for the purpose of road maintenance,” says Singson.