I am calling on all Surigaonons, to join me in my wake up call to our government officials to put an end to the traumatic experiences of traveling to Surigao Del Sur. Please help me by passing this article until the officials will finally take action.
Every travel to Surigao Del Sur is a mixture of excitement and dread. Excitement as we look forward to seeing our relatives, and dread that we might not reach Surigao Del Sur. Over the years, it has become a routine to call ahead and ask if the roads are passable, to check if the shovel is with the tools (my grandfather even used to bring running boards and sand), to have a new spare tire, to have enough clothes, food and money should we have to find shelter on the way in case we become stranded in some god forsaken area. All that plus the fear of the possibility we might encounter hold-uppers and NPA.
Our latest trip going to the area last December 24, 2006 and the return trip on December 26, 2006 is another addition to our traumatic Surigao Del Sur travel memories.
It started as a good surprise that the new road being constructed near the boundary is finally open. It was a good thing that a pick-up had overtaken us because there was no sign that the new road can now be used. If not for that pick-up, we still would have used the old road. (Is there no budget left for a single sign to inform motorists that they could use the new road? I was surprised since it seems to be a habit of our politicians to put up large signs on who lays the claim for the development.)
It was good going, until we saw dump trucks and pay loaders. The sight of these equipments is a premonition that the road less traveled could not even be traveled on. True enough, heavy mud lay ahead. And with that, my brother and our houseboy (we bring one for this purpose), had to go down, fight the mud and push the car as my father tried his damn best to drive forward while making sure we don’t fall off the cliff on the left side.
Now, allow me to say that I am no novice traveler. I have been to other cities in the Philippines and to other cities outside of our country. And I can say, THE ROAD TO SURIGAO DEL SUR IS BY FAR ONE HELL OF A ROAD. Off –road enthusiasts would have enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the rest of us just want to reach our hometown and see nanay and tatay.
When the BUDA road connecting Bukidnon and Davao was constructed, a dump truck follows a bulldozer to clear the road of debris. This prevented mud build up.
Why can’t the same be done in Surigao Del Sur? Who is the contractor of that new road? Why do the government officials perennially allow the motorists to be exposed to the terrible inconvenience and danger?
TRUE THERE ARE IMPROVEMENTS OVER THE YEARS, BUT IMPROVEMENTS MADE AT A SNAIL'S PACE IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
And imagine we even had to delay our scheduled Sunday return trip because the road became close to impassable, and that there might be no workers in the area to rescue us in case we get stuck. The workers might be on day-off. Yes, life could stop in Surigao because of the road problems.
Imagine its effect on commerce as goods could not be transported, to health as ambulances could not bring sick people to better hospitals in Surigao City or Cagayan de Oro City, to tourism as vacationers experience trauma.
And that was not over for us. Because come Monday during the return trip, we had to wait for two hours as an Adventure car and a “panel†truck tried to extricate themselves from the knee high mud. On our side, we had a Bachelor Bus, a jeep, a pick-up waiting. On the other side, another bachelor bus, a jeep, another Adventure Car. You do the math on how many people had to experience this trauma. And that’s just until we were able to cross. That was after once again my brother and our houseboy had to push the car, and this time, use the shovel. I doubt it if the road condition was improved after we were finally able to go through.
My parents are 56 years old, I am 26 years old. And all our lives, we go back and forth from Cagayan de Oro City to Carcanmadcarlan area in Surigao del Sur, and our traumatic experiences keep piling up. We will soon be bringing my 7 month old nephew to Carcanmadcarlan. Will he still be experiencing the same thing?
What about all the other Surigaonons?
By: Mananwa Mananwa
THE ROAD TO SURIGAO DEL SUR IS BY FAR ONE HELL OF A ROAD
Moderators: kampanaryo_spy, cordapya
-
Insomada
- Thread Moderator/Website Benefactor
- Posts: 904
- Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 6:26 pm
- Location: Down Under
Reading your post made me sick and I completely understood the predicament you were in. Wholeheartedly I am with you on this. Yes, it has always been a dilemma going home especially for us balikbayans who come all the way from distant countries and encounter such immense misery. All the more agony is felt if we have small kids travelling with us, as I experienced before-it was terrible really terrible and dreadful! Our yearning desire and excitement to set foot in our native land would somehow vanish once an occurrence similar to yours is experienced. I strongly support the supplication you posted in this thread. Hoping this would attract attention and draw action from the proper authorities. Good on you Mananwa. Mabuhay!!!!
-
sapaalaska
- Thread Moderator
- Posts: 620
- Joined: Thu Mar 16, 2006 10:47 am
- Birthday: 01 May 1964
- Location: Alaska
- Contact:
-
kampanaryo_spy
- CO-FOUNDER & SENIOR EDITOR
- Posts: 3570
- Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2005 4:55 pm
- Location: 13,750 feet above sea level
Mananwa (or is it Mamanwa, the natives of Carcanmadcarlan?),
And so what’s new? Surigao del Sur will no longer be Surigao del Sur if its “luxurious†(lukso-lukso) roads and the specter of dread (from highway robbery and NPA ambush) are not there to give you back pains and spine-tingling suspense.
I remember people laughing during a meeting with the Provincial Tourism Council when I said that Surigao del Sur is best positioned as a Tulis Destination! But I digress.
Question: Whose fault is it that Surigao del Sur has remained in the backwater of stagnation, bypassed by less endowed provinces?
Another: Is the situation hopeless that there’s nothing we can do but beat our breasts in utter frustration?
No, it’s not!
I hate spouting buzzwords, but we all need to think out of the box, to try new paradigms where conventional wisdom failed. For instance, we must lessen our over-dependence on congressmen to do things for the province in terms of infrastructure and other support services. Congressmen are legislators, not administrators; they make laws and are not supposed to implement projects. In short, the onus of solving the woes that you have catalogued rests on the governor, the mayors, and the heads of the national government agencies because that's the very reason why they're called executives.
Surigao del Sur’s inclusion years back to Club 20â€â€the poorest of the poor provinces---could have been the magic carpet that would have transported us to a whole new world of all-weather roads and bridges, among other things. But no, instead of capitalizing on it to leverage for more development assistance, our politicians took umbrage and wrestled for Surigao del Sur to extricate itself from what they thought to be an ignominious list. To this day, I lament the fact that our leaders did not do lateral thinking on this matter.
We need leaders who can think through this whole mess, leaders who are not myopic and parochial, leaders who think in terms of the big picture and who have tunnel vision to bring their goals to fruition. But that’s like looking for the Holy Grail. This early, I can almost see my ballot containing nothing but my fingerprint!
Two weeks ago I was on the same bus with Lourdes Pagaran who was on vacation. She was bound for Davao; I, for Butuan. It was one o’clock in the morning.
Lourdes is my neighbor. She’s a graduate of Economics at UP Diliman with masteral and doctorate degrees in Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She’s a World Bank consultant, travelling around the world, mainly to third world and other developing countries. Like you Mananwa, she noticed how the province stagnated, if not regressed. And she said that all we need are good roads to make a go at tourism, trade and investments.
You ought to stay in the province because we need world class consultants like you, I said.
She took a book from her bag and said: There's no argument except that our leaders should improve all road networks.
A scene from the movie “Field of Dreams†flashed in my mind, where the lead said, “build it, and they will come.â€Â
And the she added: Think of what remains constant with Surigao del Sur through the years.
Poverty, I said.
What could have brought it?
I thought hard. But nothing came.
And so she said it for me: Unpaved roads!
Our competitive advantage is agriculture, she said as she flipped the pages of her book, and yet our farmers remain poor because it's expensive for them to bring their products to the market because no buyer would travel for long hours on rugged roads to go to the farms.
Then we'll place our bets on tourism given our pristine beaches and lush forests, I said.
And how do you intend to sell Surigao del Sur to tourists?
As adventure destination, where amenities are in their barest minimum but not crude enough as to scare off tourists, I said.
Just the same, we still go back to the core issue of road networks.
Why?
Because tourists have to travel to Surigao del Sur first before they could enjoy what we can offer. And for that, they need good roads to arrive in one piece.
An awkward smile formed in my lips and so I looked away. Then the bus inched. I zipped my jacket, prepared to sleep through a bumpy ride ahead, hoping to dream about a better Surigao del Sur.
And so what’s new? Surigao del Sur will no longer be Surigao del Sur if its “luxurious†(lukso-lukso) roads and the specter of dread (from highway robbery and NPA ambush) are not there to give you back pains and spine-tingling suspense.
I remember people laughing during a meeting with the Provincial Tourism Council when I said that Surigao del Sur is best positioned as a Tulis Destination! But I digress.
Question: Whose fault is it that Surigao del Sur has remained in the backwater of stagnation, bypassed by less endowed provinces?
Another: Is the situation hopeless that there’s nothing we can do but beat our breasts in utter frustration?
No, it’s not!
I hate spouting buzzwords, but we all need to think out of the box, to try new paradigms where conventional wisdom failed. For instance, we must lessen our over-dependence on congressmen to do things for the province in terms of infrastructure and other support services. Congressmen are legislators, not administrators; they make laws and are not supposed to implement projects. In short, the onus of solving the woes that you have catalogued rests on the governor, the mayors, and the heads of the national government agencies because that's the very reason why they're called executives.
Surigao del Sur’s inclusion years back to Club 20â€â€the poorest of the poor provinces---could have been the magic carpet that would have transported us to a whole new world of all-weather roads and bridges, among other things. But no, instead of capitalizing on it to leverage for more development assistance, our politicians took umbrage and wrestled for Surigao del Sur to extricate itself from what they thought to be an ignominious list. To this day, I lament the fact that our leaders did not do lateral thinking on this matter.
We need leaders who can think through this whole mess, leaders who are not myopic and parochial, leaders who think in terms of the big picture and who have tunnel vision to bring their goals to fruition. But that’s like looking for the Holy Grail. This early, I can almost see my ballot containing nothing but my fingerprint!
Two weeks ago I was on the same bus with Lourdes Pagaran who was on vacation. She was bound for Davao; I, for Butuan. It was one o’clock in the morning.
Lourdes is my neighbor. She’s a graduate of Economics at UP Diliman with masteral and doctorate degrees in Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She’s a World Bank consultant, travelling around the world, mainly to third world and other developing countries. Like you Mananwa, she noticed how the province stagnated, if not regressed. And she said that all we need are good roads to make a go at tourism, trade and investments.
You ought to stay in the province because we need world class consultants like you, I said.
She took a book from her bag and said: There's no argument except that our leaders should improve all road networks.
A scene from the movie “Field of Dreams†flashed in my mind, where the lead said, “build it, and they will come.â€Â
And the she added: Think of what remains constant with Surigao del Sur through the years.
Poverty, I said.
What could have brought it?
I thought hard. But nothing came.
And so she said it for me: Unpaved roads!
Our competitive advantage is agriculture, she said as she flipped the pages of her book, and yet our farmers remain poor because it's expensive for them to bring their products to the market because no buyer would travel for long hours on rugged roads to go to the farms.
Then we'll place our bets on tourism given our pristine beaches and lush forests, I said.
And how do you intend to sell Surigao del Sur to tourists?
As adventure destination, where amenities are in their barest minimum but not crude enough as to scare off tourists, I said.
Just the same, we still go back to the core issue of road networks.
Why?
Because tourists have to travel to Surigao del Sur first before they could enjoy what we can offer. And for that, they need good roads to arrive in one piece.
An awkward smile formed in my lips and so I looked away. Then the bus inched. I zipped my jacket, prepared to sleep through a bumpy ride ahead, hoping to dream about a better Surigao del Sur.
Last edited by kampanaryo_spy on Fri Feb 16, 2007 6:34 am, edited 6 times in total.
"Most claims of originality are testimony to ignorance and most claims of magic are testimony to hubris." -James March-
surigao
I can not help but interact with this topic, it is been a perinneal problem since time immimorial, we changed public servants by voting the people we believed hoping they would lay down this problem to the Departmet of Budget or whatever right avenue or access that would solve this problem.I just wonder why other provinces were able to manage to have their road completely concreted and done.Obviously and very funny, ours; in Surigao del Sur it is "choppy choppy" utod-utod in other words. My idea, is the fact that a budget is given like by kilometers from this place to a certain destination, when it is Tandag-Tago,it has to be tandag tago or vice versa,straight not "utod utod".Take the example of sumo-sumo,lapaz,bayabas going upward to Cagwait, they make us think that certain amounts of this project was corrupted that is why it is hard again for Local Government to appeal for a budget for this area from the higher ups because I believe this site had been reported completely concreted.This is just my malicious anticipation and please forgive me for that, I just want to express my sentiments regarding this matter because I feel ashamed of our provice.I have been to places like Davao Oriental,Cotabato City,Kidapawan but oh my God it is really a pity to compare our place in terms of infrastracture.When my classmates in Davao visited our place, the excitement was deminished during our trip even with all our enticing descriptions of our beaches nevertheless affected their impression of our place.
Today I still remain day dreaming of a completed-concreted road but I don't know how.I wish the Yamishita treasure can help and if not may the million us dollar lotto jockpot will be mine because i would whole heartedly donate to Surigao del Government if only for the concreting for our beloved place that would open a lot of portunities:liesure,pleasure,financial opportunities,etc. and if then, I surely go home and start planting trees,root crops, banana,vegetables and flowers-where is the concept of road to market?It is all in speeches especially during election campain-all rhetoric! Mga kababayan ko please vote for a hands-own official malooy kamo sa lugar nato!
This is just my humble opinion and a voice with a trembling message to show that I am really concern with our place and for the general welfare!
Today I still remain day dreaming of a completed-concreted road but I don't know how.I wish the Yamishita treasure can help and if not may the million us dollar lotto jockpot will be mine because i would whole heartedly donate to Surigao del Government if only for the concreting for our beloved place that would open a lot of portunities:liesure,pleasure,financial opportunities,etc. and if then, I surely go home and start planting trees,root crops, banana,vegetables and flowers-where is the concept of road to market?It is all in speeches especially during election campain-all rhetoric! Mga kababayan ko please vote for a hands-own official malooy kamo sa lugar nato!
This is just my humble opinion and a voice with a trembling message to show that I am really concern with our place and for the general welfare!
-
Insomada
- Thread Moderator/Website Benefactor
- Posts: 904
- Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 6:26 pm
- Location: Down Under
Re: surigao
[quote="manday"]I can not help but interact with this topic, it is been a perinneal problem since time immimorial, we changed public servants by voting the people we believed hoping they would lay down this problem to the Departmet of Budget or whatever right avenue or access that would solve this problem.I just wonder why other provinces were able to manage to have their road completely concreted and done.Obviously and very funny, ours; in Surigao del Sur it is "choppy choppy" utod-utod in other words. My idea, is the fact that a budget is given like by kilometers from this place to a certain destination, when it is Tandag-Tago,it has to be tandag tago or vice versa,straight not "utod utod".Take the example of sumo-sumo,lapaz,bayabas going upward to Cagwait, they make us think that certain amounts of this project was corrupted that is why it is hard again for Local Government to appeal for a budget for this area from the higher ups because I believe this site had been reported completely concreted.This is just my malicious anticipation and please forgive me for that, I just want to express my sentiments regarding this matter because I feel ashamed of our provice.I have been to places like Davao Oriental,Cotabato City,Kidapawan but oh my God it is really a pity to compare our place in terms of infrastracture.When my classmates in Davao visited our place, the excitement was deminished during our trip even with all our enticing descriptions of our beaches nevertheless affected their impression of our place.
Your are totally right Manday. I don't want to say more but it's blatantly clear that the culprit is........... CUNNING DEPRAVITY by our government officials.
Your are totally right Manday. I don't want to say more but it's blatantly clear that the culprit is........... CUNNING DEPRAVITY by our government officials.
-
Binignit
- Thread Moderator/Website Benefactor
- Posts: 337
- Joined: Thu Jul 07, 2005 6:24 am
- Location: Sa may tupad!
I have one. In "Pichay's" campaign slogan, "Surfing Surigao" I guess laying claim to Surigao del Norte as the Surfing Capital of the Philippines. I would lay claim that Surigao del Sur is the "Offroad Capital of the Philippines". We can sell that as "Offroad Tourism" (?) I will post some of my pictures in the hobbies thread about "Offroad Adsventures".
-
Alibangbang
- Thread Moderator
- Posts: 2182
- Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2005 9:24 pm
- Location: Green Gables, Prince Edward Island