180KM Ride Palo to Maasin City // Passing the Quietest Road in the Philippines

Описание: A provincial road that traverses the mountain ranges of this city and connects to the municipality of Bontoc has all the potentials to become a major roadmap for development in the fields of agriculture, tourism, and economic growth.

The Lunas, Maasin up to Paku, Bontoc road section, a 30-kilometer (km) long, winding secondary highway network, has been concreted, piecemeal, since 2007 up to the present. The road, nonetheless, give travelers ease and comfort.

“This road, when fully concreted, will dramatically cut short travel time for people and goods coming from the Pacific and Panaon areas of the province in reaching Maasin, and vice-versa,” said Cong. Roger Mercado, the main proponent for this dream link.

At present, there are two existing highways for passengers to select, the Maasin-Malitbog-Sogod route, and the Maasin-Bato-Sogod side, the former longer by 65 km, the latter a little shorter at around 55 kilometers.

The 30-km Lunas, Maasin, to Paku, Bontoc road apparently presents a viable alternative for the shortest of distance.

Passenger vans and buses, however, cannot as yet negotiate the potential cross-country shortcut because about half of the entire length have yet to be concreted, some sections have muddy terrains, and there are great expanse of areas with no houses along the roadsides just yet.

But in some future time, all that may become a thing of the past once the entire stretch can be cemented, plus some exciting possibilities are currently happening which may develop the Lunas-Paku highway, turning it around as the trigger for the province’ inclusive growth.

At the Maasin side, the new, much bigger provincial hospital situated at Barangay Dongon lies along this highway, so emergency patients can have faster access to treatment using the interior road, with the hospital targeted to be operational in a year or two.

Those with transactions at the provincial capitol will find better use of the new highway, since the seat of the province is at the tail end of the journey.

Lunas, the last barangay of Maasin in which the road was named, is the site of the People’s Organization YISEDA – Young Innovators for Social, Economic Development Association.

This PO has transformed the balding expanse of the remaining forests that straddles the five sitios of Lunas with trees in coordination with GIZ, a German-government organization and other non-government groups.

At the Bontoc side, the next barangay after Pacu is barangay Mahayahay, site and home to many freshwater ulang or shrimps owned by a municipal councilor, Adriano Idjao.

This barangay will be the catalyst to put Southern Leyte on the map as the ulang capital of the Philippines, as envisioned by researchers at the Southern Leyte State University – Bontoc Campus, which organized its highly successful and impressive first International Freshwater Ulang Congress and Festival January 10 and 11.

And the whole stretch of the Lunas-Paku highway, has been energized, meaning from end to end, electric lines of the Southern Leyte Electric Cooperative (Soleco) stand ready to serve.

#QuietRoads #SaddlePoint