Tulay ng Pangulo Project Turnover at Sultan Kudarat

The 28.8-meter length by 7-meter width, two-way, Villamor I Bridge, worth P7.98 million under the Tulay ng Pangulo para sa Kaunlarang Pang-Agraryo (TPKP) project located in Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat.

The citizens of the Municipality of Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat will now enjoy better travel with their newly-built steel and pavement bridge. This is made possible when the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) recently turned over a 28.8-meter length by 7-meter width, two-way, Villamor I Bridge, worth P7.98 million under the Tulay ng Pangulo para sa Kaunlarang Pang-Agraryo (TPKP) project.

DAR SOCCSKSARGEN Regional Director Engr. Marion Y. Abella said the newly built steel bridge with concrete pavement will benefit the agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) of Kaunlaran sa Nayong Agraryo (KaSaNAg) agrarian reform community (ARC) cluster in Brgy. Villamor, Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat for the farmers to have easier access to transport their products to the market. “The bridge would help uplift the lives of the ARBs non-ARBs who will be selling their produce in the markets and also connect the Villamor in other neighboring barangays,” Abella said.

Abella said the TPKP project, formerly called the President’s Bridge Program, is a zero-based budgeting approach implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) under its Unified Project Management Office – Bridge Management Cluster funded by the French government. The Tulay ng Pangulo project is being monitored by the DAR under its Foreign Assisted and Special Projects Office (FASPO) since most of its recipients are ARBs under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Abella expressed his gratefulness to the Sultan Kudarat local government unit and the DPWH for finishing the project in such a short period, despite the threat of the Covid19 pandemic. Sultan Kudarat provincial agrarian reform program officer (PARPO) II Rodolfo T. Alburo said the road will also benefit the adjacent farming communities who previously had to traverse unstable make-shift bridge made of thin, and uneven wooden boards just to bring their farm products to the public market. “We make it happen,” Alburo said.

Alburo said the construction of the 28.8-meter length by 7-meter width, two-way, Villamor I Bridge worth P7.98 million started January 6, 2020 and was finished on July 17, 2020. He added that the materials for the bridge were supplied by the French Government through the French construction firm Matiere SAS.

Esperanza Mayor Charles Frederic Ploteña expressed his thanks to the DAR and DPWH as he accepted the turnover documents from DAR SOCCSKSARGEN Regional Director Engr. Marion Y. Abella.