New road brings growth to Samar town

MATUGUINAO, Samar, July 22 -- Residents in this town are happy that after several years, they are now connected to the main road of Samar province. 

Before the road was constructed, residents had to suffer the ordeal of six to eight hours travel by boat just to reach the nearest Gandara town. 

Mayor Melissa Dela Cruz said they have seen lots of changes and improvements in their town since they were connected to the main road through the national government program - Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (Pamana). 

Dela Cruz said that with the new road, cost of transportation has decreased, farm products are easily transported, and minimize insurgency problem. 

“Because travel time now to San Jorge where the nearest campus of the Northwest Samar State University is located is only 45 minutes to an hour compare to six to eight hours before, more parents are sending their children to study college,” the mayor added. 

For Phillip Diaz, 17, a youth leader in Matuguinao town, the road had given the youth an opportunity to be heard. 

“There was a problem on youth representation from Matuguinao in the provincial and regional level, but when the road was finished and vehicles were able to enter our town, we were able to join activities intended to empower us like the recent Provincial Youth Summit held in Catbalogan,” Diaz shared. 

The Gandara-Matuguinao Road, which spans 21 kilometers, is a PHP365 million road project, which include PHP250 million counterpart from Pamana while the rest is funded by the Department of Interior and Local Government. 

The town of Matuguinao used to be one of the hard-to- reach areas in Eastern Visayas due to its location in the middle of Samar Island. 

This fifth class town and home to more than 7,200 residents mostly are coconut and rice farmers can now be reached within 30- to 45-minute car ride from the national highway in Gandara town. 

Pamana is the national government convergence program to extend development interventions to isolated, hard-reach and conflict-affected communities, to ensure that they also receive developmental projects from the government and make their people feel that they are not left behind.

Pamana project is very helpful in conflict-affected areas like Matuguinao because it helps the army in ensure peace and security measure and the delivery of basic services to the local populace, said 801st Brigade commander Brig. Gen. Perfecto Rimando Jr. 

“This program is one of the best and right project that the government implement so that we can deliver government services to the people living in far-flung areas so that this may not be used as issue by the rebel forces to persuade people to go against the government,” Rimando said. 

The 801st Brigade based in Fatima village in Hinabangan town, covers the entire Eastern Samar and Samar provinces. 

Also ongoing is the 34-kilometer Matuguinao-Las Navas Road that will connect the Samar to Northern Samar province passing interior villages of both towns. 

Dela Cruz said that if this project is done this will weaken influence of rebel groups in interior villages of the town that is only accessible to single motorcycle. 

“That is why we are pushing for this road network to minimize incidents of ambush plotted by rebel groups against the military,” the mayor added. 

Although some of the villages are still hard to access, the local government is doing all their capacity to deliver basic social services like medical and health services provided by the rural health unit by sending their medical staff on regular health caravan to interior villages. 

“This is still a work in progress and we are still a work in progress. The willingness of Matuguinao people to have this road is extremely high. Processing and implementing this high impact project is not that easy and we are willing to sacrifice our properties for the fulfillment of these Pamana projects,” the mayor concluded. (Roel T. Amazona/PNA)