New highway open for public use in Lanao del Sur

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines  - Residents of Lanao del Sur can now travel directly from the provincial capital, Marawi City, to Amai Manabilang and Wao towns near Bukidnon province through a new highway opened to public use last week.

The adjoining Amai Manabilang and Wao towns are both under the first congressional district of Lanao del Sur, a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Lanao del Sur’s chief provincial information staff,  Jennie Alonto Tamano, on Saturday said the first to travel through the highway last April 4 were local officials led by the now outgoing Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr.

Adiong’s third and last term as provincial governor will end on June 30, 2016.

Residents of Marawi City, capital of Lanao del Sur, need to travel through provinces in Administrative Region 10 just to reach the towns of Wao and Amai Manabilang, which are near Bukidnon, prior to the completion of the highway.

The thoroughfare now connects Marawi City to the two Lanao del Sur towns, passing through scenic mountain ranges some still covered with tropical rainforests.

Only about 12 kilometers of the highway’s 75-kilometer stretch are still to be fully concreted.

Engineer Mikunug Macabantog, an official of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Region 10, said the still unfinished portions of the highway shall be concreted once fund allocations from the national coffer are released this year.

Tamano said it took only almost three hours for Adiong’s convoy to reach the town centers of Amai Manabilang and Wao from Marawi City.

Tamano said travel time to the two towns from Marawi City via old routes straddling through provinces in Region 10 lasted from seven to eight hours.

The construction of the new highway was a joint initiative of the DPWH, the Lanao del Sur provincial government and the office of Congressman Ansaruddin Adiong.

The reelectionist Congressman Adiong is the congressional representative of the second district of Lanao del Sur.

The siblings Gov. Adiong and Rep. Adiong pitted their mother, Soraya, as their candidate for governor of Lanao del Sur.