Mayor Cari opens P50M bridge in Baybay's brgy

CEBU, Philippines - Baybay City Mayor Carmen Cari led the inauguration of the locally-funded bridge in Barangay Ciabu of this city, which gave traveling convenience to the people of ten barangays here.

Ciabu Barangay Chairman Marilyn Avila said the bridge made possible the transport of agricultural products from Baybay's remotest villages and would cut the cost of transporting goods, as well.

Cari, who led the cutting of the ribbon during the inaugural ceremony, said the bridge is one of her legacy projects, realizing a dream conceptualized first when she became mayor in 1992.

The mayor said the construction of the Ciabu Bridge was made possible when Baybay became a city, when the local government was able to provide the needed budget due to the increase in its internal revenue allotment.

The other plan of putting up a new City Hall building was momentarily shelved in favor of building the bridge, which Cari said was more important to her constituents.

"We preferred this bridge over a beautiful City Hall because we know it would serve more people, that the people here needed it more," she said, adding that while it directly links nine other villages, it now makes easier to reach Barangay Monterico in neighboring Mahaplag town of Leyte.

Cari said the bridge does not only signify easier transport and convenience, but also peace and order. The other villages connected by the bridge are Makinhas, Maypatag, Amguhan, Ampihanon, Kabungaan, Zacarito, Sapa and Mapgap. 

Four villages are usually isolated from the Poblacion whenever the water swells. However, with the Ciabu Bridge, such situation will not longer happen, said the mayor.

Colonel Dinoh Dolina, of the Ormoc City-based 802nd Infantry Brigade, said the bridge would also make the Philippine Army's job of monitoring the villages here easier.

Monterico is one of the villages where mass graves of alleged victims of the New People's Army purging in the 1980s were found, indicating its remoteness was a fertile breeding ground of insurgents in the past, he said. — (FREEMAN)