PALO, Leyte – Residents of three farming villages in this town will soon enjoy a concrete road following the groundbreaking activities in Barangay Cangumbang for two road concreting projects funded under the Agrarian Reform Fund (ARF).

Regional Director Robert Anthony Yu of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Eastern Visayas, together with Assistant District Enginner Ade Ray Mate of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) - Leyte First Engineering District, and Mayor Remedios Petilla of Palo, Leyte, led the groundbreaking activities on January 22 for the concreting of the 4.10 kilometers Cangumbang-San Agustin and 1.5 kilometers San Agustin-Cabarasan Daku farm-to-market roads (FMRs).

Yu, in his message, shared that intervention for FMRs is among the nine priorities of Agrarian Secretary Conrado Estrella III and among the top agenda of the Marcos administration.

He further said that two of the five FMR projects that are for implementation this year in Leyte are in this town with a combined project cost of P70 million.

In appreciation, Petilla expressed her gratitude to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for his effort to concretize all roads to make it easier for the local government units (LGUs) to maintain them and much easier for the farmers to plant and to bring their products to the markets.

She also thanked DAR for the many projects provided to her municipality. She disclosed that this road was constructed under DAR’s Agrarian Reform Communities Project (ARCP) in 2014.

Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officer Edgar Cabaluna said that more than 600 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in these areas are expected to benefit from these projects.

Meanwhile, Punong Barangay Feona Retes of Cangumbang, was very grateful that finally their problem on their road is now being addressed. According to her, motorists find it hard to transport their products and schoolchildren from their village which is three kilometers away from the town proper. (Jose Alsmith Soria/DAR Eastern Visayas)