As seen on the Bohol Chronicle - As City Hall pays no attention to their pleas, residents in Barangay Taloto showed their own initiative in the spirit of volunteerism by patching-up some of the Philippines' worst roads by themselves.
Since Monday, barangay residents has been going out of their way demonstrating a united front despite being ignored by the city officialdom for a year now, on their hopes that bad roads in their village be repaired.
"It's been one year since we first requested the city mayor to prioritize city roads traversing our barangay as we were about to celebrate our annual feast, every July 15th. Although we are saddened that instead of helping us, the mayor continues to mock our pleas, we are making our own initiative to patch-up the potholes," said Barangay Captain Faro Cabalit of Taloto.
Cabalit led barangay folks – from professionals, office workers, the youth and even bystanders – to help by working on portions of roads that needed repair.
While it has been a "year-round headache" for motorists, the unpaved stretches of Taloto-Ubujan Road, Booy-Taloto-Manga Road and Baguio Drive, becomes extremely accident prone notably during rainy days.
According to Cabalit, Taloto residents have taken the cudgels in making the city and barangay roads passable and at least presentable to their guests during the fiesta season.
Several donations of truckloads of limestone aggregates (anapog) were made by City Councilor John Geesnell Yap which barangay volunteers use to fill up the numerous potholes, Cabalit added.
Using his own pick-up type multicab, the barangay captain led the road works with volunteers armed with thumpers and shovels.
Principal and secondary roads in several city barangays are awaiting repairs as City Hall seems to disregard grievances aired by residents. Bad road conditions are more apparent in barangays whose village leaders are political opponents of the city mayor.
