Villafuerte, bishops back CRANE effort
The completion of the Presentacion-Caramoan coastal road, stalled
for nearly 15 years because of politics, is finally assured with
the announcement of President Arroyo here in Camarines Sur
Thursday, February 2 that she was allocating P500 million for the
Andaya Highway and the crucial Caramoan Project.
Sources from the DPWH Region 5 said the aggregate amount will
actually be halved between the Andaya Highway and the
Presentacion-Caramoan coastal road although the entire amount
would be released on staggered basis over a few years.
The development is considered a feather in the cap of a
non-government organization, the Caramoan Residents Association in
Naga City and Its Environs (CRANE), which has been relentlessly
pushing for the completion of the coastal road for over a year
now.
In April last year, it submitted a petition to Presidet Arroyo
through Undersecretary Tomasito Monson, Presidential Assistant for
Bicol Affairs, citing the urgent need to have the 24-kilometer
road which was started way back in 1991 completed.
The petition was separately endorsed by Congressman Luis R.
Villafuerte, Governor L-Ray Villafuerte, Catanduanes Governor
Leandro Verceles, Jr., Congressman Felix Alfelor, Jr., all the
clergy in Catanduanes and Caramoan led by Bishop Manolo A. de los
Santos, D.D., the Camarines Sur Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
all Caramoan municipal officials and barangay captains and several
other Caramoan Peninsula-based NGOs.
No other development project here in Bicol had as much
multisectoral support from government leaders and the people as
the Caramoan coastal road, observers said.
Although opened way back in 1991, the coastal road was not pursued
because it was begun by then Congressman Eduardo Pilapil, a
political adversary of Congressman Noli Fuentebella. Fuentebella
has even said the coastal road will never be completed, it was
reported.
CRANE president Dominador Alarkon, Jr., said the petition cited
the fact that the coastal road is imperative to accelerate tourism
development in Caramoan which has over a dozen world-class tourism
potentials.
It is also a necessary component of the roll on-roll off project
connecting Codon, San Andres in Catanduanes to San Vicente,
Caramoan in just 30 minutes.
The petition also pointed out that the existing mountain road to
Caramoan from Presentacion built to also connect Garchitorena is
25 kilometers longer and being circuitous, Caramoan-bound tourists
are reluctant to take the mountain route which is also not
passable for most part of the year.
Days before the visit of the President, Congressman Villafuerte
has secured funding for three initial separate but complementary
projects in the Presentacion-Caramoan coastal road with an
aggregate cost of P29.5 million.
Congressman Villafuerte is also the principal author of a bill
converting to national road the Presentacion-Caramoan coastal road
which has been passed in the Lower House and is considered certain
to be also passed by the Senate.
Bicol Bishops through Virac Bishop de los Santos also played a
pivotal role in the President’s decision to allocate fund for the
coastal road.
