By Mary May A. Abellon
MUTIA, Zamboanga
del Norte – A
groundbreaking ceremony signaling the start of the farm-to-market road (FMR)
concreting project of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)-Zamboanga del
Norte in this town has been held recently.
This
road project, which will benefit 133 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) and
2,683 non-ARBs from Poblacion to Barangay Diland, has been alloted P5.35
million under DAR’s Bottoms-up Budget (BuB), Grassroots Participatory Budgeting
(GPB) with some counterpart funds from the munipal government.
In
his mesaage, Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer Mohammad Dassan L. Adju
appealed to the residents to protect and take care of the projects given them
by the government.
“This
is not the end of our partnership in development with this groundbreaking
ceremony or after the completion of this project, but this is just the
beginning,” Adju said.
“It’s
really difficult to bring development in the community. We will first pass
through many rugged roads and we will encounter many obstacles,” he streesed
adding “the problem [that may arise] after the completion of this project is how
to maintain it and the role of every resident will now start.”
“In
DAR, if we can see that there’s a development and cooperation in the community,
we will give more and more projects,” he assured.
Mayor
Arthur C. Tenorio, on the other hand, said: “Our major problem here in Mutia,
since 1960 from its birth until now, is the road concreting.”