MANKAYAN, Benguet – Some P5 million was earmarked by the municipal government under its 2019 proposed supplemental budget to jumpstart the concreting of a portion of the Balili-Sayyapot road while awaiting the allocation of additional funds from the provincial and national governments to complete the paving of the said road.
Mayor Frenzel Ayong said even if he failed to campaign in barangay Balili during the late political exercise, one of his campaign promises is the provision of available funds to start the concreting of the 41-kilometer road linking the lower and upper barangays of the municipality.
“We consider barangay Balili one of the strategic barangays in the municipality as it is our food basket, being a major agriculture-producing barangay, thus we decided to work out the funds needed to jumpstart the paving of the major road linking the municipality to other neighboring towns in Mountain Province for us to improve inter-connectivity,” Mayor Ayong stressed.
Aside from allocating the funds to start the concreting of the Balili-Sayyapot road, the municipal mayor pointed out that municipal officials are linking up with appropriate authorities to seek the support of the provincial and national governments to ensure the complete paving of the road up to its boundary with Mountain Province to guarantee the smooth transport of the agricultural produce of the farmers to the nearest market, and even the La Trinidad Trading Post.
According to him, the funds allocated by the municipal government from its available funds will serve as its counterpart in the concreting of the roadline due to the town’s limited resources, thus, the bigger part of the required funds will be sourced out from both the provincial and national governments that earlier initial committed their support for the concreting of the roadline.
Ayong expressed optimism Rep. Nestor Fongwan, Sr. and Gov. Melchor Diclas will extend the appropriate funding assistance even on a multi-year allocation of funds so that the concreting of the road that have been left out for over a decade in the priorities of the municipal government will be completed and the people living in the remote sitios of the upper portion of the municipality will enjoy the benefits of a well-paved road.
He assured the people of Mankayan the new administration of the municipality will focus on the implementation of high-impact development projects beneficial to the welfare of the marginalized sectors and contribute to the overall growth and development of the municipality because the involvement of the cross-section of the community in productive activities will definitely be instrumental in moving the town to greater heights.
Mayor Ayong appealed to the incumbent municipal officials, the private sector and concerned sectors to harmonize their approaches in charting the development of the municipality to unify their efforts in further improving the current status of the town as it is one of the potential growth areas in northern Benguet being a mineral-rich community and an agriculture-producing locality where there is balance between industry and agriculture as the major sources of income of the people.
By HENT
