LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines - The government has just upgraded the 46-year-old Ramain Bridge in Lanao del Sur’s Bubong town to maximize the connectivity of Maranaw peasant communities to markets in the cities of Marawi and Iligan.
Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. on Wednesday said he and his constituent-local officials in the province are grateful to the executive department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and to President Benigno Aquino III for focusing attention on the need to improve the bridge to hasten the mobility of local Maranaw peasants thriving along Lake Lanao.
The newly-rehabilitated bridge was launched together last Monday by Adiong and ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman.
While in Lanao del Sur, Hataman, who exercises ministerial control over ARMM’s Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), appealed anew for public support to Malacañang’s Southern Mindanao peace process.
He said he appreciates the cooperation of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front with the efforts of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces in maintaining law and order in the province.
The Ramain Bridge, built in 1969, connects a portion of a highway straddling through Bubong and nearby agricultural towns in Lanao del Sur.
Adiong said the rehabilitation of the bridge, which now has a 61.3-meter concrete overpass bed, 7.3-meters wide, was started in 2015 using funds allocated by Hataman’s office, through the ARMM’s Department of Public Works and Highways.
“We are thankful to the ARMM government for not letting us down, for acting on my request for the improvement of the Ramain Bridge,” Adiong on Wednesday told The STAR.
The DPWH-ARMM had spent P12.3 million for the rehabilitation of the Ramain Bridge, drawn from the region’s 2014 infrastructure budget.
The funds for the Ramain Bridge repair were channelled through the provincial government via a memorandum of agreement between Hataman’s office and the Adiong administration.