LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines - Maranaw farmer Anwar Macapodi is optimistic the construction of a concrete highway connecting Marawi City to Wao, Lanao del Sur would usher in improvements in the lives of his children and grandchildren.
Macapodi, a former Moro guerilla, is just one of thousands of farmers now benefiting from the newly-built highway. He and his children rely mainly on farming as main source of income.
The highway, which straddles through Ramain, Maguing and Amai Manabilang towns, all in Lanao del Sur, stops at Wao, the northernmost town in the province, near Bukidnon under Region 10.
Wao has long been connected to Bukidnon via a highway being jointly maintained by the provincial government of Lanao del Sur and the Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH) regional office in Region 10.
Wao, a booming agricultural town, is located at the border of the neighboring Lanao del Sur and Bukidnon provinces.
“The new highway now connects Maranaw farming communities to markets in Marawi City and in the towns in Bukidnon province. We have waited for the realization of this dream for decades,” Macapodi, now 64, said in the Maranaw dialect.
The highway, opened to public use two weeks ago, shortened by only an hour the travel time from Marawi City to Wao, reachable only in the past via a six-hour travel through the neighboring Region 10 cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.
Sanimah Bandar, 43, wife of a Maranaw peasant, said the highway will ensure their prompt delivery of farm products to markets in Bukidnon, something they have wished for so long.
“The construction of this highway is an answered prayer,” Bandar said in the local vernacular.
She said their farm products rot in storage huts during the rainy days in the past due to difficult accessibility to the markets.
The newly-completed road project was a joint initiative of the office of Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., the DPWH-Region 10 and the office of Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Lanao del Sur is a component province of ARMM, which also covers Maguindanao in central Mindanao and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
Adiong and local executives from the towns of Maguing, Amai Manabilang, Ramain and Wao towns led a symbolic drive through of a convoy on the highway last week to highlight its completion.