Former Mayor Eleanor Dimaporo-Lantud of Pantao Ragat, Lanao del Norte is protesting her cousin’s “obstruction” of a major infrastructure project in the area.
Lantud said Rep. Abdullah Dimaporo has been telling the Department of Public Highways to discontinue the Lanao del Norte Interior Circumferential Road, which is part of a package of road projects funded by soft loans from the Saudi Arabian government.
Lantud said that during her term as mayor, the road was still classified as a provincial road. Dimaporo then authored a bill”•which later became a law, Republic Act 10104″•converting the 29.8-kilometer stretch into a national road during the Arroyo administration.
With an estimated project cost of P420.3 million, the circumferential road was envisioned as the main access of the inland communities to the markets in the town center to accelerate Lanao del Norte’s economic growth.
The road was designed to start from the Iligan National Highway in Iligan City to the Malabang Tukuran National Highway in Sultan Naga Dimaporo town.
The road was supposed to span 10 municipalities in Lanao del Norte. However, only the first three towns, including Pantao Ragat, were covered by the finished construction, Lantud said.
Only a fraction of the project was done in her hometown, the former mayor added.
Rep. Dimaporo could not be reached for comment as of presstime.
“I may not hold office any more, but the people look up to me as their mother,” Lantud said. “I also want to help my husband, Lacson Lantud, who is now mayor of Pantao Ragat. I feel sorry when the farmers work very hard to harvest vegetables, many of which perish along the way because of the bad roads.”
Lantud said her rift with Rep. Dimaporo began several years ago when the Lantuds and the Dimaporos clashed over political loyalties during the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada in 2000.
When she was the mayor, Lantud said Dimaporo tried to block her school project and the construction of farm-to-market roads in Pantao Ragat.
Despite the lack of funding and “moral support” from the national and provincial government during her three terms, Lantud said she was able improve the road network in Pantao Ragat and won the battle in finishing the school.
However, the cousins’ rift worsened when Lantud shifted her party loyalties from the Liberal Party to the United Nationalist Alliance when she ran for governor last year, she said. Dimaporo is loyal to LP, which was unseated as the administration party with President Rodrigo Duterte’s victory under the PDP-Laban banner in the 2016 elections.
The Lanao del Norte Interior Circumferential Road project was part of an additional P1.96 billion in projects funded by soft loans from the Saudi Arabian government, the DPWH said in 2013.
In a report titled “Saudi Fund for Development-assisted Mindanao Roads Improvement Project,” the road projects, which were scheduled to be completed in May 2014, included the Cotabato City East Diversion Road, with an estimated cost of P709.03 million; Lake Lanao Circumferential Road from Marawi City to Bayang, P421.6 million; Basilan Circumferential Road from Isabela to Tumahubong, P414.9 million; and the Basilan Circumferential Road from Isabela to Sumisip, P415.2 million.