New road eases burden of highland farmers

For decades, vegetable farmers in Baculongan Norte in the highlands of Buguias, Benguet had a hard time transporting their harvests to the market. It takes them three hours to bring the produce to the lowland through the bumpy and muddy dirt road.

Local farmer Peter Misaen adds that bringing fertilizers to their farm was also difficult.

“Trucks could not travel here so we had to carry the fertilizer and produce which gets damaged because of the long trek,” he says in a video shown on Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) 14th episode of its Kwento ng Pag-asa at Pagbabago (#KPAP) posted on the agency’s Facebook page.

Their hardship ended when the DSWD built a new road through its Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS) program.

Construction of the Pagapag section of the J207 Bad-ayan-Sawmill-Pugo-Lam-ayan-Sinto Convergence Road was funded by the World Bank for P3 million. With the 7-kilometer new road, transport of their produce to the market was shortened to one hour from over three hours. The shortened transportation time also preserved the quality of their vegetables.

Women giving birth can also be quickly brought to the hospital, according to Misaen.

In 2024, the KALAHI-CIDSS was able to help more than 1.6 million households in 7,514 barangays at 288 municipalities across 14 regions in the country, according to DSWD.