Residents delighted by new concrete road in NCotabato

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines - Ramil Alisna, a 35-year-old driver of a passenger motorcycle, said he is ready to lower his fare charges for passengers in Barangay New Bohol here now that the bumpy stretch of the road connecting their contiguous villages to the center of the city had been concreted.

“That would mean less `wear and tear’ on my motorcycle and lower maintenance expenses. I can lower the cost of fare now for residents of the barangay. I hope other drivers of passenger motorcycles will follow suit,” he said in the Cebuano dialect.

Farmers in New Bohol also expressed delight over  the portion of the road fully concreted.

“We can use its sides for drying corn grains,” said a farmer, Norberto, 50, a father of five.

Residents of Barangay New Bohol got what they called a “double treat” Tuesday in the form of a medical-dental relief mission and the  turnover to them of the newly-concreted farm-to-market road.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza led local officials in transferring the control of the P3-million concreted road to local community leaders, an event capped with  a joint medica-dentall mission by the provincial government and the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion.

The road concreting was bankrolled by the office of Mendoza under its programmed 2013 infrastructure projects.

The turnover event was witnessed by Kidapawan City Vice-Mayor Rodolfo Gantuangco and North Cotabato provincial board members Aileen Claire Pagal and Noel Baynosa.

Mendoza had told New Bohol residents that the projects her administration had implemented in the area sought to improve the productivity of local farming communities and to link them up with trading centers in the heart of Kidapawan City.

The turnover of the road to the barangay government of New Bohol was capped with a joint medical-dental outreach mission by the provincial government and the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion, which has jurisdiction over Kidapawan City and surrounding towns.

The medical and dental teams Mendoza brought to Barangay New Bohol, comprised of doctors, dentists, and nurses from the Integrated Provincial Health Office and medical aide men from the 57th IB, served 189 patients, who were also given free medicines.

Col. Noel Dela Cruz, commanding officer of the 57th IB, said they are ready to help facilitate medical and dental missions of Mendoza’s office anytime, especially those to be initiated in far-flung communities.

Dela Cruz said medical and dental missions that would benefit impoverished villages can help foster cordiality between the beneficiary-communities and the government.