CRANE-Caramoan

The petition of the Caramoan Residents Association in Naga City and its Environs (CRANE) to President Arroyo endorsed by hundreds of Caramoan and Catanduanes residents seeking the completion of the Presentacion-Caramoan coastal road has borne fruit after the President allocated funds for the project.

But Caramoan parishioners are still wary that along the way implementation may yet be stalled because of certain problems that sometimes hamper government projects. Caramoanons have had sad experiences with at least two multi-million peso projects in the town which were either delayed for many, many years or yielded no benefit at all.

One is the dendro thermal project in the 1980s, an undertaking of the provincial government under the Fuentebella administration for which about P40 million was funneled by the government. The project yielded no benefit at all because its implementers failed to finish the undertaking although the money allocated was presumably collected. Presently the government has spent at least P40 million more than the original project cost of P 87.896 for the Hanopol Dam irrigation system or almost P30 million or almost P130 million but so far not a hectare has been irrigated by the project 12 years after the project was started on December 29, 1994.

Caramoanons, being known to be inherently pious, have thus decided to include in their daily prayers in all four parishes in the town the smooth implementation and completion of the Presentacion-Caramoan coastal road. Residents have sought its completion since it was started in 1991 by then Congressman Eduardo Pilapil but the project was abandoned from 1992 by succeeding Congressmen of the Third District of Camarines Sur. The road was virtually forgotten until CRANE marshalled multisectoral support for the project.

No less than Bishop Jose Rojas, Jr., Auxilliary Bishop of Caceres, wrote the following prayer now being read daily throughout all churches in Caramoan. The full text of the prayer runs thus in Bicol:

PAMIBI SA PAGPAKARHAY KAN (LAGONOY-PRESENTACION-CARAMOAN) COASTAL ROAD

O Dios na samuyang Ama, padagos na tinitipon mo kami bilang saimong mga aki. Boot mo na kami magin harani sa lambang saro, dayupot sa kapwa huli sa pagkamoot. Ipinapamibi niamo saimo ngonian an pagpakarhay kan mahalagang tinampo na iyo an masaro samo sa ibang banwaan, an mataong kagianan sa samong paglalakbay, asin an madarang kauswagan sa samuyang aroaldaw na pagkabuhay.

Ipinapamibi niamo na lugod, huli kan saimong pag-antabay, an paghiro kan proyecto magin marikas asin matiwasay. An fondo na itinagama kan gobierno mapamugtak lugod sa mga marhay na kamot tanganing matanos ining mapamahalaan sagkod na an tinampo mahaman susog sa kamowotan kan mga nanunongdan asin mga namamanwaan. An mga tawong igwa nin tumang kaisipan maliwanagan lugod kan katuyohan nin paglingkod para sa ikakarahay nin kagabsan. Ligtasan sa ano man na maraot an mga kaayon sa pagpakarhay.

Ipinapamibi niamo an samuyang mga sadiri na lugod samong malabanan asin madaog an mga kaolangan nin pagigin tunay na mga magturugang sa paagi nin paghanap asin pagtugdas nin dalan pasiring sa pakikipag-olian asin pagpatinawad-tawadan na iyo man an dalan pasiring sa katoninongan.

Kami namimibi saimo sa tabang ni Virgen Maria, an Ina nin Katoninongan asin an Patrona nin Marhay na Pagbaklay, asin sa ngaran ni Jesucristo, an Dalan, an Katotoohan, asin an Buhay na Daing Kasagkoran. Amen.

Briefly, the prayer seeks divine intervention so that implementation could proceed smoothly and the project completed according to specifications. It asks that those entrusted with the responsibility, the implementing agencies and contractors included, should be amply guided so that funds should be spent where they must go and that elements in the society who might have misgivings or who might have hostile attitudes towards the undertaking be enlightened of the critical need for the project to improve the lives of people in the Caramoan Peninsula including the island province of Catanduanes.