Mindanao roads
EVER since the bridge over the Polangui River was fixed in Maramag about three years ago, the traffic between Davao and Cagayan de Oro has multiplied several times. Some sections like that between Malaybalay and Valencia resemble Manila streets in traffic at certain hours. It has also turned this highway into a killer road in which no week passes without an accident, mostly heavy trucks going at a speed too fast to negotiate the many sharp turns and motorcycles taking unwarranted risks. The highway is no longer wide enough for the number of its users, which promises to increase by the day. Mindanaoans are jealous when they see the wide highways of Central Luzon. On the other hand what warms my heart are the huge 18 wheelers constantly increasing in numbers signaling that trade is going on between the two cities. This is a breakthrough since previously the big city centers of Mindanao all faced the sea and were enclaves with no land connection with each other. Mindanao was not one economy. The buying power and the manufacturing potential were limited to the two or three million inhabitants of each enclave instead of the whole 30 million of Mindanao. Good highways between the enclaves e.g., Surigao, Butuan, Iligan, Zamboanga City, Ipil, Cotabato City, and General Santos, will make the island of Mindanao one market. Rather than having to ship and import goods to Cebu and Manila and other ports of Visayas and Luzon. It will have a viable market on its own.More roads are planned and need to be built soon. One of them the east west highway between Tagum and Iligan passing through Valencia and Marawi has been started with test cement patches in San Fernando but seemingly abandoned. The Liloy to Ipil road built by the Army brought safety to the area. More of these roads have to be built. The Philippines-Japan Friendship highway south of Butuan is almost completely repaired. Although well built in the 70s its foundations collapsed. It ran through a forested area and when the huge roots of the forest trees rotted in 30 years, the cement slabs cracked.
There is talk of a railway on the coast between Iligan and Cagayan de Oro. This is welcome but the coasts are sufficiently served by ships. Needed is a railway system that cuts across the island from north to south and east to west. Railroads are better than roads to carry heavy goods over long distances. We really do not have bulk material except grain. The mineral that we extract are mostly metals that do not require bulk handling. Besides roads the international airport in Lagindingan, Misamis Oriental to service Northern Mindanao to be started soon.
