Nueva Vizcaya a traveler’s nightmare

We went on a road trip on a private van to Nueva Vizcaya from Manila in the latter part of April 2012. Going to Nueva Vizcaya on a day trip took almost nine hours when it could have taken less time. Heading back to Manila at night, we spent almost an hour on the nonmoving traffic along the dark national highway.

It takes even longer for buses from different points of Luzon in going to Nueva Vizcaya and back. Some buses carry passengers who have to stand all the way from the terminals. This is because there are fewer available buses going to and from Nueva Vizcaya given the longer turnaround time. The culprit—the very long span of the national highway now under repair/repaving, which has left many parts of the highway open only to one-way traffic, which means vehicles would have to wait for their turn to pass.

Residents say that the road construction has suffered delays. I pity the people living along the highway whose lives and livelihood have obviously been sorely affected by the road construction, given the dust from the road repair flying all over with the constant passing of vehicles. Seeing these people’s humble homes, I would surmise that they have no choice but to stay put for lack of resources to transfer to more comfortable locations.

I also noticed that a waterway near the highway was almost dry, most probably because of the summer heat. I imagine the added agony to the residents of having a dried-up water source. I hope responsible officials of Nueva Vizcaya, especially its governor and representative in Congress, can immediately look into these problems of their pitiful constituents.

—MCS ABIS,

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