A concrete road may just be an ordinary physical structure for most people, but for Barangay Malabbaga in La Paz, Abra, it is everything they hoped for.
Malabbaga is home to 312 households whose main livelihood is rice farming and trading, and animal husbandry. It hosts an elementary school and a day care center with total enrollees of 240.
For the longest time, villagers have suffered from walking through unpaved and usually muddy road within the barangay. School children were the most affected by this deplorable road condition.
In a group interview with Grade 6 pupils, they recounted that they would always reach school or get home with muddy footwear.
Prince Reyes, the student body president of Malabbaga Elementary School said that before, they would rather wear slippers rather than shoes since it is more convenient to wash them when they reach school and return home.
He added, “Dagidiay ubbing met ket ubbaen ti nanang da nga ipan eskuelaan ta maigal-galis da (Those who are younger than us were carried by their mothers because they would always stumble).”
Lorna Belena, principal of Malabbaga Elementary School, also recalled, “One night when I was rushing to attend a wake, my sandals got stuck on the mud so I opted to remove my shoes and walk barefoot.”
Likewise, Barangay Captain Romulo Espiritu shared that farm produce were sometimes left rotten because the farmers were hesitant to tread the muddy road to go to town to sell.
Another villager, Jovy Ola, recalled that there was a time when a woman in labor was being rushed to the hospital, but with the unpaved road, the tricycle had to be pushed by a couple of men.
Long wait is over
In 2014, however, their longtime ordeal finally ended when their village became a beneficiary of the Kapit-Bisig-Laban sa Kahirapan Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) which is being implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Kalahi-CIDSS is a poverty alleviation program that provides citizens the opportunity to identify and implement community projects that would address their basic needs. In most cases, the chosen projects come in the form of small-scale infrastructures such as school buildings, day care centers, health stations, pathways, farm-to-market roads, and irrigation systems, among others.
The village received a funding support amounting to P1,266,166.74 from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) through KALAHI-CIDSS and P243,115.72 from the Local Government Unit of La Paz for the concreting of the road from Sitio Salindeg to Malabbaga Elementary School.
For Prince, the concrete road allowed them to enjoy some childhood perks. He and his classmates cheerfully expressed that with the concrete road, they can reach school clean and dry.
Some of them stated that they do not have to worry carrying their younger siblings during the rainy season when the road gets worse.
For Lorna, she is now happy and confident walking through the road even at night. She is also thankful that the school children are now safe on their way to school.
“Dagitoy ubbing ket haan dan nga marigatan magna ti rough road nga umay ditoy eskuwelaan ken haan dan nga nagrugit no agay-ayam da man dita kalsada (It is not difficult for these children to walk through rough road to come to school now and they do not get soiled even if they play along the road),” she added.
For village chieftain Espiritu, the concrete road has also provided more economic opportunities for farmers in the community.
With the concrete road enabling travel faster and easier, he observed that farmers are now working double time to ensure that they have more produce to bring to town.
Beyond the concrete road
For the people of Malabbaga, the concrete road has paved the way for the change that they have long waited for.
But for DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman, the concrete road was just a reflection of how the villagers welcomed the challenge to become instrumental in their own development.
“This is the essence of Kalahi-CIDSS – to empower the people to improve their own communities by deciding on what project they need most to address their situations,” Sec. Soliman said.
Under Kalahi-CIDSS, communities submit their proposals for funding support during a Municipal Inter-Barangay Forum (MIBF). At the MIBF, villagers discuss among themselves the merits of the projects after which they identify which should be funded.
Twice, in 2012 and 2013, the concrete road project proposal of Malabbaga failed to make it to the priority list. With this, most of the community members were already discouraged and did not want to pursue their proposal anymore.
“Di naabak kami ti Cycle 1 and 2 ket kasla naawanan dan ti ganas (When we lost during Cycle 1 and 2, it’s like the villagers have already lost their spirit),” Brgy. Chairman Espiritu said.
“Ti panag-convince ti tattao nga ag-volunteer ti na rigat (Convincing people to volunteer for this project was the real challenge),” he continued.
He lamented that when he calls for an assembly, most of the community members do not attend since they do not believe that it will be approved after the two failures.
“Gapo ta sakitek met, sinmali kami manen ket kaasi na iti third cycle ket nag-number two kami idiay priority list (Since I care about the situation of our barangay, I pushed that we again join the forum, and by grace we made it to number two in the priority list during the third cycle),” he beamed.
He also admitted that the community volunteers including him thought of not joining the MIBF in 2014 but with the lingering hope to concrete the road, he still mobilized his people to dramatize their situation.
Espiritu continued that when their proposal was approved, people slowly began to believe in Kalahi-CIDSS since there also employment opportunities in the program.
During the implementation, Malabbaga encountered various challenges along the way especially on the procurement of materials for the construction. However, with the technical assistance of DSWD staff and the determination of the villagers, they were able to complete their project and finally bid goodbye to muddy slippers. ###
