US envoy urges village folks to sustain projects

CARMEN, BOHOL, Philippines — United States Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg yesterday appealed to village people of Villarcayo of this town, about 55 kilometers north of Tagbilaran City, to take care of the development projects being imple-mented there.

“It’s not only the duty of the government, but you owe it to yourselves and the future to maintain and safeguard the use of these facilities,” Goldberg said in his short speech before the residents and visitors.

The ambassador visited this town to inaugurate the one-classroom school building sub-project funded by the U. S. government’s $434-million Millenium Challenge Corporation Compact in the Philippines.

The barangay residents, as beneficiaries, were the ones who chose the school building sub-project as priority considering that they lacked classrooms “to accommodate the growing number of pupils in this barangay.

Goldberg cited the “participation and sacrifice of community volunteers in preparing, developing and implementing and monitoring the sub-projects based on identified needs should be commended.”

Commending the bayanihan practice of the barrio folk, Goldberg said he saw the cooperation and resiliency of the people here in the completion of the building.

In his three-page speech, exclusively obtained by The Freeman, he said: “I have seen Bohol rise after the earthquake in 2013. It has changed the lives of Boholanos but what I have witnessed so far is a kind of change that is transformation, and demonstrates the resilient nature of the people of this province.”

The school building was done under the Kapit-Bisig laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services, a project of the DSWD, which had the support of the MCC through a $120-million grant, supervised by Millenium Challenge Account-Philippines.

MCC has provided a total of Php125,801,639 for Bohol’s 12 towns with completion of 232 basic infrastructure sub-projects, such as farm-to-market roads, water systems and schools that benefited more than 5,000 households in 22 barangays in this town, the ambassador said.

Goldberg led the ceremonial unveiling of the school building marker, along with Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman, Governor Edgar Chatto and Mayor Ricardo Toribio, among other officials. (FREEMAN)