Northern Samar’s farthest town
TACLOBAN CITY– Northern Samar’s most isolated town, Silvino Lubos, is now connected to the rest of the province with the inauguration of a bridge on June 16.
The 3.25 kms bridge connects the town via the municipality of Mondragon which was completed after five years of construction and in the amount of P238.31 million funded under the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity – Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (OPAPRU-Pamana).
Prior to the construction of the bridge, which traverses the Suba River, the people of Silvino Lubos has to take a 12-hour of travel by boat to reach the town of Pambujan, its former mother town until it became a municipality in 1967.
With the completion of the bridge, the people of Silvino Lubos would need one and a half hour of travel.
Town Mayor Leo Jarito expressed his gratitude to the national government agencies for the bridge project that will link Silvino Lubos to the rest of the province.
Aside from fast mobility among its people and services, the bridge will also help address its insurgency problem, he said.
“This is where Silvino Lubos will begin to find peace. It is right to say that when there is an infrastructure, the members of the New People’s Army leave because the grievances of the residents are met,” Jarito said.
Board member Marites Gillamac, whose area covers the town of Silvino Lubos, said that indeed the bridge will be a big factor for the town to solve its problems of poverty and insurgency.
“We address not only poverty but most of all, our peace and order situation. Now things have changed a lot. We can go to remote barangays so that means peace and order situation is good,” she said.
For his part, Major Gen. Camilo Ligayo, the commanding general of the 8th Infantry Division, is upbeat that with the completion of the bridge, ending the town’s problem and the rest of the province against the members of the NPA, the armed wing of the communist group, will be hastened.
“I am optimistic that the three brigades with nine battalions deployed here on Samar Island, we can eradicate the communist terrorist groups and will soon welcome socio-economic development, most especially in the areas which were once exploited by the terrorists,” he said.
“I am optimistic that the three Brigades with 9 Battalions deployed here in Samar Island we can eradicate the communist terrorist groups and will soon welcome socio-economic development most especially in the areas which were once exploited by the terrorists,” Ligayo said.
Silvino Lubos is a fourth-class town inhabited by more than 15,000 people spread on its 26 barangays and has a poverty incidence of 56.9 percent based on the 2018 poverty survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority(PSA).
(JOEY A. GABIETA/ROBERT DEJON)
