LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Benguet Caretaker Congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Yap committed to infuse more funds next year for the realization of the road opening projects leading to the remote villages of Tacadang in Kibungan and Kayapa in Bakun to jumpstarting increased economic activity in the said communities.
Yap, who chairs the powerful House Committee on Appropriations, stated that the public works department is currently implementing the P200 million earmarked for each of the road opening projects which he saw as one of the priority development projects needed in those areas.
He pointed out that the initial funds allocated for these projects will all go to the road opening works and the balance will be provided in the public works department’s annual budget next year until these will be completed.
After the completion of the road opening works, the neophyte lawmaker said that the concreting of the roads will next be funded for residents to benefit from good roads and enhance economic activities among the residents.
According to him, the opening of roads leading to remote villages will definitely spur the local economies of these places that is why priority has been given to the two major road opening projects leading to Tacadang in Kibungan and Kayapa in Bakun.
For next year, Congressman Yap disclosed that more funds will be earmarked by the public works department for road opening projects in the province, particularly from Itogon to Nueva Vizcaya, Tuba to Pangasinan, part of Mankayan to Ilocos Sur, among others, to improve inter-barangay, inter-municipality, inter-provincial and inter-regional linkages.
The Benguet caretaker congressman claims that the road opening projects and other high-impact development projects he intends to implement in the province are geared towards making Benguet one of the first-class provinces in the country where people in the rural communities will improve their living conditions and that no places will be left out in terms of a share from the development initiatives funded by concerned government agencies and the local governments.
Yap frequently visited the two remote villages of the province since he assumed as the legislative caretaker of Benguet in January 2020 and was convinced that the realization of growth and development in the said communities will be anchored on the presence of good road, thus, he included, as among his priority development projects for this year, the provision of the initial funding requirements to jumpstart the road opening leading to these places.
At present, Benguet remains a second-class province despite the operation of a number of large-scale mining companies and it being the source of more than 80 percent of the semi-temperate vegetables being sold around the country. By HENT
