TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The provincial government urged the Lower and Upper Kalinga District Engineering Offices of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to align their major infrastructure projects under the Roads Leveraging Linkages of Industry and Trade Logistics Efficiency and Transport Seamlessness to Enhance Agribusiness Trade (ROLL-IT LETS EAT) project for 2025 with the priority projects of the local governments.
ROLL-IT LETS EAT is a program that aims to improve food security and logistics efficiency in the country by enhancing road infrastructure along truck routes that are used to transport food and agribusiness products to markets, manufacturing centers, ports, airports, and logistics facilities such as warehouses and cold chain storages.
Under this project, there are 14 roads in the province which had been included as part of the priorities of the concerned agencies such as the Pingao-Lutot Road, Ableg-Dalupa Road, Simangan-Pugong Wagas Road, Batong Buhay-Colayo Road, Limood-Magsilay-Malucsad-Amdalao-Guinaang Road, Tatakkan-Guimuyo-Gaang Road, Darulog-Alubaggan-Cogawe Road, Banagao-Lower Mangali Via Cawi Road, Guimma-Mandama-An Road, Dalnacan Mangali Via Taloctoc Road, Bawac-Makungikong Road, Tangbay-Talac Road, Pagattac Road, and Gawidan-Tam-awan Road.
Local government units (LGUs) that were not able to submit their project proposals have until June 2023 to complete and submit their proposals to be funded under the ROLL-IT LETS EAT program.
DTI-Kalinga reminded LGUs to ensure that their road project proposals must be used to transport food and agribusiness products to the market to ensure that the project will be relevant to the goal of the program.
Various agencies, office of the congressman, and LGUs also presented their completed, ongoing, funded and proposed projects for review to avoid double funding.
For her part, Kalinga Provincial Director Catherine Apaling of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples urged all project implementing agencies to secure the Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) from affected communities in areas within ancestral domains prior to submitting a funded road project proposal. This will avoid delays in the project during implementation.
Apaling clarified that the FPIC process for government projects is not a long process and only involves a validation process.
She further explained that a successful validation process will result in the issuance of certification of precondition, while for areas that are not within an ancestral domain, NCIP will give a certification of non-overlapping to ensure the timely implementation of the programmed projects, especially that it is aimed at improving connectivity in the countryside.
Earlier, the government heavily invested in the upgrading of national and secondary national arterial roads in the different parts of the country to boost the upliftment of the state of infrastructure projects that will translate to economic growth and development in the future.
