LICUAN BA-AY, Abra -- One reward of rural development field work is meeting and knowing people whose dedication to their work is par excellent.

Some are so committed to a task they won't give up until they personally finish it even in the face of physical danger.

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I found one such person in this hinterland that is known more as a rebel-infested area in the days of the strongman. Except in the summer, this beautiful and cool place in Abra can be reached with some measure of guts and determination too.

We reached the place just after 7 p.m. after a three-hour ride traversing the rugged and winding Abra-Kalinga road over mountains beginning in a place called Uyas-igat, which marks the town's boundary with the lowland town of Lagangilang.

Just like most mountain roads in the Cordillera, the danger of night travel is enhanced by the thick.

We were lucky. Our driver Patrick Shontogan from La Trinidad, Benguet is used to these kinds of roads and foggy conditions where visibility is within the range of a few feet to 10 meters only.

Even with deep ravines and yawning mountain slides, we can trust in this guy. He has traversed all kinds of Cordillera mountain roads even if he has to drive with his head stretched out of the front side window to be able to see a few feet of the road ahead.

We reached Baquero, a sitio in Barangay Ba-ay about 8 p.m. where Mr. Joel Sannadan was waiting for our group of six including two drivers. Sannadan, Municipal Planning and Development Coordinator (MPDC) of this town, was waiting who warmly welcomed us to our quarters and venue of our meeting the following day.

Even with a happy outlook, I noticed that Joel's movements were rather forced. He walks with a limp. I soon noticed portions of his bandaged left foot during dinner. Obviously, he cannot wear his shoes in the condition that he is now suffering.

He later showed to me what ails him. Both feet had bandages with the right foot bandaged from the knee towards the thigh. "My right knee was sprained, aside from the gushes that you can see just above the ankles," he said.

As MPDC, Joel is also the municipal action officer for the Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resources Management (CHARM-2) Project. The town of Licuan-Ba-ay is a new Charm-2 coverage area that he was thrilled of this development ever since. It was something that filled his days envisioning the progress; the project would bring to the people and the place.

Two days ago, Joel spent the day visiting project stakeholders in the four barangays of the town whom he had invited earlier to attend the consultations. "I wanted to be sure that they would come, so I rode my motorbike early to see them," he said.

It was 9 p.m. and he still needed to visit one more barangay, which he did. Going to the place, he noticed that work is being done on a certain portion of the road going uphill. It was around 11 p.m. when he finished seeing the people he intended to see that day.

Because it was already late in the night, his speed on his way back was rather fast. On a curve downhill, it was not anticipated that some boulders and soil that rolled down the road formed a hump that got him and his bike flying up and landing on the side of the road, breathless and in pain.

No matter. "Except the developing bulge on my feet, I still found myself whole and the bike exterior was damaged in many areas, but otherwise it can work. So I got up and rode it home."

A day before the event, he was still in pain but otherwise he can manage to ride his bike to go to Bangued and confirm with his boss, Mr. Philip Tinggonong, PPDC that all is set for the consultations.

What drives this guy to accomplish what he did where others would have given up? "It is done for the service," he said. Aside from that, I soon found out that Joel was a college math teacher, and prior to that, he was a volunteer worker with a non-government organization working for marginal peoples.

His love for the service, a past that was spent in the service of the poor, and a discipline that is being imbibed by the planning officers of Abra as Charm-2 Project action officers, through Mr. Tinggonong, are all part of the reason. With these people around, a new and better Abra is emerging.