A pledge of help from Congressman Nachura - DIRECT LINE by Boy Abunda

Here’s a letter I got from the Honorable Congressman of the Second District of Samar, Antonio E.B. Nachura. I’m printing it en toto.

Dear Mr. Abunda,

In your column, Direct Line entitled "I took a little trip to my hometown," in the Jan. 1 issue of the Philippine STAR, you mentioned the deplorable state of the Tacloban-Buray road. Then you wrote "xxx Congressman Nachura of Western Samar, you gotta do something here. Or whoever is in charge."

I confirm the terrible state of disrepair to which this portion of the Maharlika Highway has fallen, because I have had to negotiate this section – and back – almost every weekend for the past two-and-a-half years.

The standard excuse offered by the Department of Public Works and Highways is that these roads were built more than 25 years ago, and their original specs did not anticipate the volume of traffic and the load-bearing capacity required today. Furthermore, the climate in Samar serves to worsen the road condition (there are only two seasons in Samar: wet and very wet). And, in the last two years, even as the total requested funds for repair exceeded P100 million, the actual amount released was a measly P20 million. We raved and ranted, begged and cajoled appropriate government agencies for the needed funding, but the releases were trifling compared to actual need.

But let me assure you that something is being done about this. Within this month (January 2001), the Department of Public Works and Highways will be bidding out the project for the total rehabilitation of the Calbiga-San Juanico section. The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) will provide the funding for this purpose, in an amount exceeding P700 million. Four contractors, all with international experience, have been pre-qualified. Actual work is expected to start within four months.

On the other hand, the repair of the Calbiga-Catbalogan section, also with JBIC funding, is slated to commence in 2002. The gestation period of these foreign-funded projects is inexorably long.

In the meantime, we have obtained the release of some modest amounts to be used for re-blocking of the extremely damaged portions of the road, and repair work is now being undertaken. These are, however, merely tentative remedies designed to tide us over until full rehabilitation work can begin.

I hope that the foregoing will help you understand the situation, even as we all look towards 2002-2003 when she shall finally have riding comfort in Samar.

Damo nga salamat.

Antonio Eduardo B. Nachura

Some friends whose words I honor say Congressman Nachura is a good man. And I believe them. I wish the good Congressman all the best and may he get all the help from government agencies tasked to fix the horrible roads of Samar or portions of the Maharlika Highway. How can a highway named Maharlika be so decrepit and deplorable?

The roads and forests of Samar are silent witnesses of every Samareno’s life story – including mine and my Tatay’s.

My late Tatay in his teens, had to work as a bus conductor to support himself. He was an illegitimate child and life was hard for a boy who would walk barefoot to school. He would only wear his tsinelas upon entering the school premises so he would not soil his precious slippers. In his teens, as a bus konduktor, he would sleep on top of the bus – under the moon, sun and rain. The bus would ply the Catbalogan-Borongan route. In one of these trips, he bought me a harmonica that I still keep to this day.

Tatay was a self-made man, people in our small town would say. I was born when Tatay was already a small time businessman and a barrio captain. He had already acquired a few properties that would produce truckloads of palay. If you don’t buy rice, you’re OK, he would often tell me. Tatay traveled the extra mile most of the time because he wanted a better life for us. He worked tirelessly and remained an honest, respected man all his life.

Once in a while, he would bring us to Tacloban City – the big city of my childhood where there were nice restaurants and huge movie houses. Clothes were more fashionable and there were hotels. But we wouldn’t stay in one of them because they were expensive. Instead, we would stay with Tatay’s friends in the city.

It was hard to go to Tacloban. The roads in Samar were infernal. Yes, Congressman Nachura, this was more than 30 years ago. Passengers would get down the bus and walk a number of kilometers while the roaring, raging vehicle would dance, skip, sway across muddy, dangerous, ugly craters and frightening holes. In these trips, by the time Nanay would say we were close to the town of Bagacay, I knew we were all going down the bus and we would all walk. I never heard anyone complain. We were so enured by these constant harrowing trips that even during the time when one of those ferocious buses would finally break down and succumb to the monstrous roads, we would all go down and walk to the nearest populated area and wait until the bus was fixed. No one complained.

In the early ’90s, roads were already a lot better. But one of my friends from Manila who came with me to Borongan fainted during one of the trips. If you had a fake nose or an enhanced breasts, you were bound to lose them because of the terrible shaking you go through while negotiating rough roads.

The roads are better today. Samar is not anymore "a howling wilderness," as the devious American Col. Jacob Smith described it.

But Samar deserves better roads and better politicians like Congressman Nachura. But Eddie Nachura can’t do this alone. And newly appointed Secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways, Simeon Datumanong must take a long and serious look at the pathetic state of roads in Samar.

Many politicians and colonists of many generations have abused the third largest island of the Philippines.

Samar has withstood the avarice of politics and the warmth of storms with a quiet strength you see in the coconut trees that dance gracefully when a storm rages. You will gape in awe when you see bancas glide through the biggest waves of the turbulent Pacific Ocean. In Manila, what you call a storm is a drizzle in Samar.

A couple of months ago, a friend from Tacloban asked me, "Aren’t you afraid to travel from Tacloban to Borongan at night?" I said, "No."

I am like a bird, a wild one, who finds refuge in the beauty, wilderness, mystery and strength of the island. Put me anywhere in Samar, I’m fearless because I know I’m home.