Mini bridge, a concrete expression of peace in North Cotabato

Matalam, North Cotabato – A simple infrastructure, a mini-bridge technically called a box culvert, is making life more convenient for some 3,750 farmers, students and other residents of Barangays Marbel Proper and Ilian in North Cotabato. While the two barangays are literally a stone’s throw away, separated only by the five-meter wide Kisupit Creek, historically residents have had to wade through the creek to get to the other side.

Daily crossings posed no problem during summer. During the rainy months, however the five meter journey from one barangay to another was often a challenge. Farmers had to forego trading their produce. Students had to absent themselves from classes, and their parents had to postpone any transactions involving their neighboring barangay. The inability to cross when it was swollen from the rains meant lost incomes for farmers and lost opportunities for students and adults.

This situation changed radically however, in May 2006, with the completion of a three-barrel, five-meter by 11-meter wide concrete box culvert that connects Barangay Ilian with Marbel Proper. The facility was constructed due to a partnership between the Municipal Government of Matalam and USAID’s Growth with Equity in Mindanao
(GEM) Program. The municipality paid one-fourth of the project cost of P1.23-million, in the form of labor expenses in the clearing, excavation, embankment and gravelling works, while the GEM Program shouldered the remainder of the costs.

The facility is one of the 800 Barangay infrastructure projects — including footbridges, water systems, concrete drying pavements or solar dryers, boat landings, trading centers, bridge and road upgrades or repairs — that GEM, as a result of similar partnerships, will construct by 2007 in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and other conflict-affected areas of Mindanao.

Now, residents of the two barangays, who earn their livelihoods through sugarcane farming, have easier and faster access to resources and services such as education and health. They can also now travel conveniently, via the Matalam-Antipas National Road, to Kidapawan City, 20 kilometers away, and to other urban centers in Central Mindanao.

During the recent turn-over of the project, Robert Barnes, USAID’s Economic Growth Advisor, noted that the facility serves a larger purpose than easier access to and from the two barangays.

“It demonstrates that the partnerships among the communities and our two governments can achieve true progress and real results. Here, we see a concrete expression of the benefits of peace,” Barnes said.

He added that the US government is pleased to be able to help those who are committed to peace and who have a vision of a brighter tomorrow for their community, their province, and for the whole country. .

MNLF State Chairperson Datu Dima Ambel reiterated his full support to the 1996 peace agreement between the Philippine government and the ex-combatants, and stressed that the peace pact has spurred economic development in North Cotabato.

“It’s good that the war has ended. Now, it is more important to develop our depressed communities. Let’s forget the war and move forward to achieve continuing development,” he said.

Echoing similar sentiments, Bernardo Piñol, Jr., North Cotabato provincial administrator, likened the projects funded by the US government in the Philippines to General Douglas McArthur’s most famous promise during World War II that “he shall return.”

“In this new generation,” Piñol noted, “McArthur’s promise still lives on. However, the fulfillment is not anymore to liberate us from the Japanese forces, but to free our people from the bondage of poverty.” (GEM Program)