New P600-M road revives hope in poor Northern Samar town

SILVINO LOBOS, Northern Samar, Nov. 24  -- The PHP600-million road for peace project, expected to be completed in 2018, is eyed to unlock economic opportunities in this remote town, situated 29 kilometers from the existing national highway.

Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (Pamana) Samar area manager Emilda Bonifacio said they are working to address bottlenecks to ensure the road project’s completion by the end of 2018.

The Pamana project, funded by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, started in 2013 but was delayed due to frequent rains in the province, Bonifacio said.

“The budget is already there, but its implementation has been hampered by unfavorable weather in the area,” Bonifacio said in an interview Friday.

In the past, Silvino Lobos is only accessible through three days of hiking from nearby Pambujan town. Travel time was cut to eight hours when locals discovered transportation through the Pambujan River. The new road will reduce travel time to only two hours.

In the past four years, the government has opened and concreted 25 kilometers of the road section, but the highway is not completely passable pending the construction of two bridges.

This farming town is the poorest municipality in Eastern Visayas region with a poverty incidence of 77 percent based on the 2015 survey. Problem on accessibility discourages children to proceed to college.

Due to problem on accessibility, the poverty situation in this town is high at 77 percent based in the 2015 survey. Many children don’t pursue college education due to accessibility problem.

Jinky Sorio, 18, will complete senior high school early next year. She really wants to go to college and become a lawyer someday. Her parents even failed to complete secondary education, a footstep that she doesn’t want to follow.

“Just like my fellow students, we are praying hard that the road will be completed soon. As a student who will be going to college soon, the road is instrumental for us to achieve our goals in life,” Sorio said.

For boat operator Jaime Verano, 51, the road project’s completion is a journey to the next chapter of his life. For more than three decades now, Verano’s large family survived from his minimal income as passenger boat operator.

“I will acquire a jeepney once the road is finished. My purpose is to make college education a reality to many young people in our town,” said Verano.

Silvino Lobos Mayor Remedios Espinar is upbeat on the prospect of the road project once completed.

“If the road project is completed, we can invite investors to our town since we will be strategic location for producers and buyers from the towns of Matuguinao in Samar, and Las Navas and Lope de Vega in Northern Samar,” Espinar said.

“The road will also facilitate the movement of goods and delivery of services that would result to local economic growth, reduce high poverty incidence, and suppress insurgency problem in this town,” Espinar added.

Silvino Lobos is a 4th class municipality in Northern Samar province with a population of 15,299 as of 2015. It is a former village of Pambujan town until it became a town in 1965. (RTA/PNA)