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Wednesday, October 02, 2002
P1M footbridge project turned over to farmers
MT. PROVINCE -- The Department of Agriculture in the region has turned over to the Farmers-Irrigators Association the finished farm-to-market footbridge across the Chico River at Barangay Gonogon, in Bontoc.
This developed even as the P1 million "high impact infrastructure project" under the Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization program of the national government is yet to be fully paid.
Municipal Agriculturist Fred Waclet, who said he does not favor the chop-chop implementation of the project, disclosed that with the endorsement of Mayor Louis Claver Jr., the P1 million AFMA fund share of Bontoc town was used for the construction of the footbridge which was validated as more advantageous to farmer-beneficiaries.
He added that the municipal council recommended to use the money for the construction of a trading post near the Bontoc rotunda but it was disapproved after it was verified that the proposed site is part of the government lot.
The footbridge project became controversial when a local paper circulated in Mt. Province published a "highly-questionable and misleading news report," saying that the money was disbursed but the project appeared unfinished and without floor steel matting.
To determine the veracity of the report, the DA-CAR projects monitoring team including other advocates for transparency in government projects implementation, conducted an on-the-spot ocular inspection and verification.
Findings disclosed there was no truth in it.
Agatha Wachorna, DA-CAR monitoring team member who represented Regional Executive Director Elizabeth Verzola during the awarding ceremony, congratulated the farmers group led by their president, Pascual Sacgaca, for completing the urgently needed infrastructure project.
She added that out of the P1 million fund, only P150,000 representing mobilization fund was released so far.
The remaining balance will be released soon after the mobilization money is liquidated.
For his part, Claver expressed satisfaction with regards to the completion of the project despite the delay in the release of fund allocation.
He also encouraged farmer-beneficiaries to make use of the project well.
Meanwhile, Office of the Provincial Agriculturist representative Concepcion Wangdali egged the farmers on to expand and further develop the identified service areas of the project but ensure the continuous conservation of watershed areas to sustain balance to the ecology.
In his acceptance speech, Sacgaca thanked the DA-CAR, partner-agencies and the local officials for their collective support in solving the major problem of the small farmers.
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