Town mayor cites DPWH chief

MANILA, Philippines - A Muslim mayor who credits Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. for stopping the unnecessary deaths of mothers and babies in a poor isolated town in Zamboanga del Norte has joined calls for the DPWH to run for president so he can help bring progress in the countryside.

Mayor Norbi Edding of Sibuco, Zamboanga del Norte, cited Ebdane for building a multi-billion road network linking his town to a nearby city in Mindanao so that his constituents and their children will not die at sea following birth complications that the local clinic cannot handle.

“Before Sec. Ebdane completed the road, we have mothers and their babies dying monthly because they cannot make it to the modern hospitals in Zamboanga City. Although we are only 74 kilometers away from Zamboanga City, big mountains separate us and we have to take the sea to reach it in four hours,” said Edding who came to Manila to personally relay his support to Ebdane’s presidential bid.

Edding credits President Arroyo and Ebdane for exercising political will to see through the completion of the P1.3 billion, 74-kilometer Limpapa-Lintangan-Sibuco road, thus linking Sibuco to Zamboanga City by land. Trips from Sibuco to Zamboanga now take about two hours.