Challenge To Govt.! Build Roads, Bridges, We Will Do The Rest

If Government is serious in addressing Rural Poverty in the country, all that is needed is prioritize the construction of rural roads and bridges linking production areas to the. market.
It is a proven Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation Formula and I am a living witness.
From the day I joined Government as Mayor of my hometown, Mlang, Cotabato in 1995, I have identified rural roads as a key component of simple but effective governance.
This was embodied in the five letters of Practical Governance which I conceptualized – W-L-R-L-P – which stand for Water, Light, Roads, Livelihood and Peace.
When I became Governor of North Cotabato in 1998, the provincial government invested in road building equipment and I created Fleets of Road Building Equipment complete with bulldozers, graders, payloaders, backhoes and dumptrucks.
The fleets were fielded to build rural roads and the workers were directed to stay in the area, bring tents and food provisions and complete the road project.
This reduced the poverty incidence in North Cotabato which was at 52% when I was elected Governor to 29% when I left office in 2007.
When I was appointed Secretary of Agriculture, President Rody Duterte approved my proposal to program the constructor of the 13,000-kilometer backlog in Farm-to-Market Roads during his 6-year term.
In spite of President Duterte’s support, my proposal was not supported by the Economic Team, especially then Secretary Carlos Dominguez of Finance, who insisted that the FMR Project should just be included in the GAA instead of providing special funds to complete the construction in 6 years.
Today, in the private sector, I still content that if the country would like to achieve Food Sufficiency and reduce poverty in the countryside, the completion of the Rural Road Network all over the country should be completed.
The FMRs, along with the critical small irrigation and Solar Irrigation Projects, will dramatically increase productivity in the Agriculture Sector.
Many Agricultural Investors are also willing to venture into the thousands of hectares of undeveloped farmlands if there are basic infrastructures like roads, bridges and irrigation established by Government.
Government must tweak its infrastructure priorities.

#GovernanceIsCommonSense!