Samareño fund-raiser for road saves government money
Edited, with permission, from the original article written
by CHITO DE LA TORRE (Samar News, www.samarnews.com)
OFW Journalism Consortium, Inc.

VILLAREAL, Samar – POOLED money and cement bags from Samareños here and abroad to construct an eight-kilometer provincial road would allow the local government to save millions of pesos for this poor cluster of villages in southern Philippines.

This was announced recently by Renato Latorre, mayor of the fifth-class municipality of Villareal, and who started soliciting money from Villahanons spread across the Philippine capital and some countries around the globe.

Latorre's fund-raiser rode on the need to help construct the Villa Kasang-an Road that connects this coastal town of 23,604 people to the Maharlika Pan-Philippine Highway. The fund raised was able to meet requirements of building that road, saving some P65.6 million from the municipality's budget. That amount was reportedly the budget for building that road.

Mayor Latorre "was able to mobilize us and get our trust and support," said Cesar Torres in an e-mail message posted in the Samar News online publication.
Torres cited the Villareal Bayanihan Road Cementing Project as "something that has never been done in contemporary Philippines."

"Consequently, we are saving the Philippines some P65.6 million," Torres wrote in his regular column at "The Filipino Insider."

The "Insider" is a monthly supplement of the San Francisco Chronicle, one of the major newspapers in the United States with a circulation of 500,000. He can be reached through his email address cesar1185@aol.com. Ray P. Gaspay in Catbalogan, Samar's provincial capital, meanwhile, owns Samar News.

In his article, Torres wrote: "With practically no assistance from the provincial and national governments, the people [of Villareal] have been repairing and cementing an almost impassable public road since October 2004 through voluntary work, known in the Philippines as bayanihan."

"This road connects the town to the Pan-Philippine Highway, which traverses the entire Philippine archipelago - from northern Philippines to the southern tip of Mindanao," Torres's column added.

Linking up
Torres told his readers that after nine months more than a kilometer of the road has been cemented, with residents of Villareal and from near island barrios providing scheduled voluntary labor. Municipal employees, meanwhile, reportedly do volunteer work on the road on Saturdays.

"Some townspeople, who are not allowed to volunteer to work on the road because it is not their turn yet, [get] angry," Torres quipped.

"They think they are being left out and feel they are not important; [that] they do not belong. [But] even school children help," Torres wrote adding that the enthusiasm "is unflagging."

Torres, however, didn't say if he did volunteer work on the road or witnessed the community construction.

At the moment, there is a stockpile of cement for the project and more donations are pouring into the town project. According to Latorre, about P500,000 – a little less than $10,000– has been contributed to this road-cementing fund.

The Internet has been an effective medium of communicating with the Villahanons, Latorre said. A group of civic leaders, some of whom were people who said they didn't even vote for Latorre, reportedly receive and manage the donated funds. These leaders are grouped under the Villahanon Association in Metro Manila (VAMM).

"A check with Atty. Oscar G. Yabes, secretary of the Philippine Senate, elicits the information that it costs P10 million per kilometer to cement a public road if done by the government," Torres said. "In contrast, the imputed cost of this voluntary – bayanihan –road-cementing project is only P1.8 million. A difference of P7.2 million!" Torres wrote.
Latorre reportedly personally helped in the pouring of concrete last May 21. He was seen among those on a long line of men, women, and schoolchildren under the sun.

Some of them who went to the town from nearby villages said they volunteered because they believe the road will make transportation of local products easier and accessible to all markets around the western coast of Samar.

The day's toil briefly created a festive mood when time came to feast on roasted pig that the local government donated for the day's bayanihan. A 10-minute video documentary on the activity can now be viewed online.

Polled way
According to Gaspay, the Villa-Kasang-an road has been called "Panaaran" [throughway], on account of politicians seeking the votes of Villahanons at each election campaign period always promising to cement that road.

In his message, Latorre said the road "had been 'completed' many times in the past by many political leaders."

But, he said in the message posted on Gaspay's website, he is "equally excited as the Villahanons with the prospect of having a concrete road through the effort of the people of Villareal themselves."

Bags of cement keep on being loaded unto the town hall, adding to the 3,195 bags of cement donated by Villahanons in Metro Manila last year.

There were also pledges from Villahanons in Norway and Canada. A website for this project regularly posts the names of donors and their donations. There's an Addi Batica, a native of Basey, Samar who is residing abroad, who pledged 40 bags of cement. There's also a Luz Fallorina-Clark who promised to give 200 bags.

Artemio Murillo, vice-president and managing director for operation of Pajara Construction Inc., said that a kilometer length of the road would need 9,000 bags of cement. His computation of P170 per bag showed the project would require P1.53 million –roughly US$27,322– for each kilometer.

Murillo prepared the work program, cost estimates, project planning, consultation and managing services for free. Murillo also pays for his own travel expenses from Manila to here and back, according to Latorre.

The VAMM, meanwhile, assumed the responsibility of soliciting 54,000 bags for some six kilometers of the distance.

The road actually stretches up to nine kilometers from the town proper to the highway. It cuts across sitio Lusong in Canmucat and barrios Nagkaduha, Macupa, Igot, Malunoy, and San Fernando. San Fernando is Villareal's last barrio lying next to Pinabacdao's barrio Bangon, which borders the highway.

Makaruruyag gud
THE fund-raiser was hatched four months after Latorre won as mayor and during the VAMM fiesta celebration in September 2004 at the Amoranto Hall in Quezon City.

It was there that Latorre told his fellow Villahanons of his plan to have the Villa-Kasang-an road cemented via the bayanihan scheme, which is called pintakasi or tiklos in the ethnic language. He told VAMM members the municipal government of Villareal would provide gravel, sand, reinforcement bars, and lumber, while labor would come from the barangays along the route to Kasang-an.

VAMM members reportedly "received with loud approval" Latorre's proposal, shouting "Makaruruyag gud!!!"

Murillo said VAMM and Latorre inked an agreement in a meeting after the fiesta celebration.
The agreement also stipulated that the association would solicit bags of cement from all Villahanons or a cash equivalent of P140 per bag of cement. The donor could have the bags of cement directly delivered to the office of the mayor in Villareal, or send a check payable to the VAMM, which would then purchase the cement on behalf of the donor.

The sharing scheme of the three groups –the VAMM soliciting cement donations, the local government unit providing sand and gravel, and the barangay providing labor– was cited by VAMM as a "stroke of genius, real Filipino, Sinamar".

A 2003 audit report of municipalities nationwide by the Commission on Audit showed that the town has P24.911 million in gross income, P20.262 million in expenses, P4.650 in net income, and P17.129 million in assets.

Samar province, the country's third largest island, occupies the southwestern part of Samar Island in eastern Visayas. It is bounded on the north by Northern Samar, on the east by Eastern Samar, on the west by the Samar Sea, and on the south by Leyte Gulf. Samar has 360,160 people, according to the Region 8 office of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). (visit Samar News online at www.samarnews.com) end