ARMM to restore Spanish-era bridge

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines - The government will restore a Spanish-era bridge connecting two stretches of an equally old thoroughfare linking Lanao del Sur’s adjoining Malabang, Lumbaca-Unayan and Bayang towns.

Engineer Adib Arumpac, chief of the 2nd District Engineering Office (DEO) in Lanao del Sur, said the road and bridge projects will be funded with allocations from the 2015 and 2016 budgets of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

He said Engineer Don Mustapha Loong, regional secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways in the autonomous region, wants a vital part of the artery, the bridge over a river in Lumbaca-Unayan, rehabilitated and retained as a historical landmark.

The bridge was constructed in the 1880s by Spaniards using rocks and binding plaster made of materials available in the area.

Once reconstructed, the road network will connect peasant enclaves in Bayang and Lumbaca Unayan to Malabang, a seaside settlement where the Spaniards and, subsequently, the Japanese during World War II, had established garrisons.

“That old Spanish bridge was constructed to hasten the military campaigns of the Spaniards in the hinterlands of Lanao del Sur and around Lake Lanao but the incursions all failed because of the heavy resistance by the Maranaw people,” Loong said in an emailed statement.

The ARMM government allocated about P3 billion worth of grants for various infrastructure projects in Lanao del Sur for calendar years 2015 and 2016.

The province has more than 30 towns, where the DPWH-ARMM has on-going road projects meant to connect municipal markets and agricultural sites.

The projects are being implemented under the ministerial control of ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman.

Arumpac and Loong both said the ARMM’s infrastructure thrusts in Lanao del Sur are transparent and are all open to scrutiny by the media, civic groups and religious organizations.