An officer of the Benguet Federation of Farmers last week told President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in Mt. Data that the improvement of Halsema into an all-weather highway triggered investments in transport by local residents.

“Many locals are investing into the transport industry because of the improved condition of the highway,” Loreto Buyaan, federation director summed up in a report to the President.

Buyaan made the testimony on March 1 at Bauko’s Barangay Monamon where Arroyo inaugurated the Boga Bridge along Mt. Data.

The president motored to the site along with local officials of Mountain Province and Benguet as well as police and Department of Public Works and Highways officials.

Buyaan said that with the  rehabilitation of the Halsema into an all-weather highway, the economy in both northern Benguet and neighboring Mountain Province have perked up because of less travel time and less damage to vehicles.

“In the past when it was an abortion highway, travel time was three hours longer and vehicles had to do constant repairs,” said Buyaan.

The BFF official recalled it was then President Diosdado Macapagal who first improved Halsema in the 1960s by having it asphalted all the way to Bontoc.

“But it was the current President, his daughter, who completed the task by transforming it into a modern highway,” he said.

He said that the flow of goods and commodities as well as the movement of people had been hastened as a result. “Good road also gave the idea for locals (especially those with children working abroad) to invest their money in the transport industry.”

“This explains why the number of passenger vans had multiplied over the past years due to public demand,” he said.
“Now even harvested vegetables are transported in vans to the trading post,” he added, drawing applause from the President and her entourage.

He said local tourists have also discovered that they could tour the Benguet ve-getable farms and return to Baguio on the same day without being fatigued.