Quezon Province is definitely out of my coverage as Chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) but I hope I will not offend people if I suggest that government must consider the construction of a diversion road to avoid the recurring floods in Lopez, Quezon which completely cut off traffic on Maharlika Hifghway.
Maharlika Highway or the Pan-Philippine Highway is the only major road through which goods from Mindanao, Visayas and Bicol pass through loaded in trailer vans, 10-wheel cargo trucks and small cargo vehicles.
There is a portion of the highway in Lopez, Quezon, however, which has a history of flooding and residents of the area say that whenever it rains hard, trucks could not pass and would have to wait for days for the floodwaters to subside.
We were caught in this situation yesterday as we drove all the way from Mindanao to Metro Manila for the MinDA Tienda in Manila.
People said we would have to wait for two to three days before we could cross and this was totally unacceptable to us.
It was a good thing that policemen of Calauag, Quezon guided us through the backroads passing through the towns of Guinayangan and Buenavista skirting the flooded area.
But it was a difficult road to negotiate as it was narrow and part of it was unpaved.
Learning from this and for the sake of our producers from Mindanao who bring their goods to Manila, I am respectfully recommending that a diversion road be built in Lopez, Quezon so that there would be an alternate route truckers could take when floods inundate the Maharlika Highway.
Previous experiences of how the floods affected the transport of goods and a projection of more goods coming from Mindanao in the coming years to come would justify the allocation of funds for a diversion road.
This would certainly help us in Mindanao.
Kung puede lang naman.
#TouchGroundFeelthePulse!
#GovernanceIsCommonSense!
(Video footages were taken by the Media Team of the Mindanao Development Authority.)
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