Road leading to Southern Leyte’s cave capital benefits locals

MACROHON, Southern Leyte, March 18 (PNA)  --  The road leading to spectacular caves in Cambaro village in this town was primarily built for tourists, but locals are reaping more benefits than visitors.

Rey Mureal, 31, driver of a single motorcycle locally known as “habal-habal”, has been earning more from transporting people and goods from and to their village due to enhanced accessibility to the town center.

“Back in a day, my motorcycle consumed about a liter of fuel for a single trip, but with the better road, the fuel requirement has been reduced to only half a liter per trip,” shared Mureal, who has been a driver for 13 years.

Improved road has raised his income since the motorcycle can carry up to five passengers from only two passengers prior to the road concreting project. Each passenger pays PHP40 as fare.

Ariel Carolino, 25, a former pedicab driver, now earns PHP1,000 to PHP2,000 daily from mobile fish vending or five to 10 times higher than what he got from his old tiring job.

“People in this village get a taste of fresh fish daily because it’s easier to bring products from the market through motorcycle,” said Carolino, whose daily grind is to deliver fish door to door in Cambaro, a home to 92 families.

Between 2013 to 2014, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)-Southern Leyte Engineering District Office has converted at least 2.17 kilometers of narrow and muddy trail into a concrete two-lane road in Cambaro village, some seven kilometers from the main highway.

The government had spent PHP24.25 million for the first phase and PHP14.85 million for the second phase. Civil works involved removal of trees, roadway excavation, stone masonry, widening, and concreting.

This year, the DPWH regional office will embark on a PHP100 million concreting of the remaining five kilometers from a subvillage in Cambaro to the national highway.

“While this road was designed to attract tourists, the people here are the ones benefitting more because we are here every day,” said Rey’s wife, Maricel, the village chief of Cambaro.

Although the village has been experiencing brownouts, the Southern Leyte Electric Cooperative fixes power lines within 30 minutes since the village is more accessible.

“Few years ago, we’re not a priority in restoration works. We use to spend the night with brownouts,” she recalled.

The village official noted that there has been increasing number of tourist to the cave. The village welcomes about 20 cave explorers this year from only five to 10 visitors in the past.

The community gets PHP50 spelunking permit charge for each visitor and a guiding fee of PHP150 for each group.

Cambaro, a farming community, is the caving capital of the province in the sleepy town of Macrohon, some 17 kilometers away from provincial capital of Maasin City and 185 kilometers away from Tacloban City, the regional capital.

The village boasts countless caves still waiting to be explored. Several of them have picture perfect views like the Tabunan Cave, which was featured in the 2007 PNOC (Philippine National Oil Company) calendar.

GMA 7 featured Cambaro as one of the undiscovered destinations in the country during one of the episodes of travel show “Biyahe ni Drew” late last year.

The government has been prioritizing the improvement of roads leading to tourist destinations, capitalizing on tourism assets to stimulate local economic growth. (PNA)
JMC/SQM/DPWH-PR/EGR