TUBA, Benguet – The management of the Philex Mining Corporation recently inaugurated a 2-kilometer farm to market road that would complete the loop linking six sitios in barangay Camp 3 for the benefit of thousands of residents living in the said villages.
Lawyer Eduardo M. Aratas, Philex’s legal and administrative division head, said the six sitios of Camp 3 that will benefit from the new road loop, including a 10-kilometer project from sitio Alapan to Kennon road, are Torre, Kimmabab, Alapang, Alang, Camait and Bastian.
He cited among the benefits that the people living in the communities will enjoy with the new road loop are access to energization, empowerment to avail of education and health benefits, opportunity for modern farming, security enhancement and improved standard of living and the upliftment of the quality of life in the said areas.
Aratas cited the secondary line energization in the area was in partnership with the Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO), the barangay of Camp 3 and the concerned sitios.
According to him, the total cost of the concreting of the 2-kilometer road and the energization of the said sitios is P12.2 million which were source from the company’s 2014-2015 Social Development and Management Program (SDMP).
Camp 3 Punong Barangay and Councilor-elect Benedict Baliton expressed the gratitude of the people of his barangay to Philex for the completion of the farm to market road and the electrification project, saying that there has been a speedy development of the communities over the past three decades through the assistance of the mining company.
Fred Mocate, a community leader in Camp 3 and a monitoring member of the SDMP, stated that the developments in their communities is a product of solid partnership between the host and neighboring communities and the mining company, citing that local residents should sustain the partnership between the two parties in order for them to reap the fruits of development and responsible utilization of the country’s mineral resources.
For her part, Norma Marcelo, also a community leader in the place, expressed the gratitude of the people to Philex for projects that were implemented, are currently being implemented and those that will be implemented in their places because most of the SDMP projects translated to the development of their villages and the improvement of the living condition in the said areas.
Dalmaia Dino, Camp 3 barangay kagawad, narrated that when she was an elementary pupil, the Kimmabab road was the only access in going to school and during their younger years, taking the Kimmabab road was challenging because of its bad condition but now, children have an easier time going to school because of the paved farm to market road.
Aratas said the company remains committed in the implementation of various SDMP projects that were identified in partnership with the host and neighboring communities so that there will be continuous development in the host and neighbroing communities for the benefit of the present and future generations of people living in the said communities.
By HENT
