Padilla to finish Larap road by November

Mayor Ricarte Padilla discusses with the officers of LaPIMa and JPNHSAA his administration’s development program during a courtesy call-meeting last Friday. – Facebookposting

JPNHSAAI co-vice-presidents Cynthia Ybarola and Thine Book, with Mayor Padilla, pose in front of a board spelling out Mambulao’s tourism-push slogan 'Fun …? There’s more in Mambulao!!! Yan Man ... Mambulao'.

A segment of the Larap road at Malapyungan being concreted last April under the LGU-JP road cementing project. The cemented portion of this road is now nearing the bridge at Sparline in Larap. Baranggay Parang is seen in the background.

- Photo by LGU-JP

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

CONFIDENT of staying for another three years in office, Jose Panganiban town mayor Ricarte Padilla has assured Larap residents that the cemented road linking their barangay to the town poblacion would be completed by November.

Padilla made this known at a meeting last Friday with the officers of Lapima (Laking PIM Ako) and JP National High School Alumni Association, who made a courtesy call to the town executive during his brief stay in Metro Manila on an official government business.

The mayor said road-building across the municipality was in full swing and that donations of cement for the road project continued.

Sometime last April, Padilla told MWBuzz that the cementing of Larap road would reach the bridge at Sparline by May this year, the local election month.

He told the officers that the cementing of the remaining 3km of rough roads beginning from the Sparline bridge to the center of Larap will be completed towards yearend, most likely November.

Larap, which hosted the former Philippine Iron Mines (PIM) until 1975, has a population of close to 5,500, according to a government population census in 2010.

Although Larap was the major source of revenue for the municipality during the heyday of the iron mine till the mid-70s, the six kilometer of bumpy road linking it to the town proper was never cemented by the local governments those days.

It was only when the administration of Padilla came in July of 2010 that an honest-to-goodness road cementing program that aims to pave in concrete most of the municipality’s 81km of town and baranggay roads was firmed up and finally launched.

Padilla also gave the Lapima officers a sneak preview of development projects that he hoped to accomplish at the end of his second term in 2016 as well as those that he hoped to put in place at the end of 2019 should he get a third term in office.

The Lapima officers who took up various concerns with the mayor regarding mambulao included Lapima board members Samuel Tatom and Guito Belza and JPNHSAA chairman Jun Espana, vice-presidents Cynthia Ybarola and Thine Book and former Larap resident Tony Tatom.

According to Ybarola, the group discussed with Padilla how alumni association and LaPIMa could help their hometown and kababayans.

She said that Padilla shared with them the latest accomplishments of his administration as well as the roadmap to continuous improvement and full development of Mambulao up to 2019.

Padilla is seeking re-election unopposed, thus assuring him of election victory.