Traversing the Province of Abra (Part 1)

Welcome to Bangued, Abra!

Leaving the office a few minutes after 9 a.m. last March 1, my officemate Perry Galario and I along with OMB driver Bert Dancel set course on a journey to the rugged northern province of Abra. After several stopovers including lunch at Sison, Pangasinan and a brief respite and merienda at Perry’s home town of Candon, Ilocus Sur, we finally arrived half past six at the Municipality of Bangued, the capital of Abra.

Weeks before, our acting director had asked me to join Perry who will be conducting field research regarding empowerment of selected non-government organizations (NGOs) involved in monitoring of government project. NGOs identified in several provinces were all coalition partners of the Northern Luzon Coalition for Good Governance (NLCGG). I obliged, despite our (the RSSB staff) serious questions on current recognition and appraisal of work assignments at the bureau. I knew this was a work challenge I couldn’t pass up. More so, it will give me the opportunity to renew ties with old anti-corruption colleagues in Abra and have a first hand experience of what they have been doing for over two decades now.

And a challenging adventure it proved to be! Fortunately, the exhausting day long 400+ kilometer drive was tempered by my thrill of numerous first time sights.

Our simple but functional accommodations at the Diocesan Pastoral Center

Our friends at the Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Governance (CCAGG), one of NLCGG’s pioneer member organizations, initially made reservations at a cooperative managed facility for our accommodations but we had inadvertently discovered a cheaper alternative at the nearby Diocesan Pastoral Center. As we would soon find out, the Pastoral Center was just across the street from the CCAGG office.

That night was the first of several exploratory hikes we made around the rustic poblacion of Bangued. We ate dinner at a neighborhood eatery chain locals generally call the “Fastfood”.

There, one encounters the exotic viands of Ilocandia, a mix of meats often including pork and goat (Kaldereta), their innards (Papaitan) sometimes not surprisingly raw (Kilawin). I am not that adventurous, sticking mainly to the rich sour stews and salty condiments they bathe fresh vegetables in. “Diningding” and “Pinakbet” or simply steam vegetables with fish bagoong poured over them, now that’s my kind of Ilocano food!

Foreign participants on a study tour are welcomed at the CCAGG office

Off to work the following day, we went to the CCAGG office that morning located at the 2nd floor of the DZPA building in Rizal corner Zamora Street.

New unfamiliar but warm faces greeted us at the CCAGG office. Some were on-the-job (OJT) students while the others were younger generations of CCAGG volunteers. I was informed that some of the people I knew before were either out of the office or have long gone for other pursuits.

With CCAGG offices and staff with 2 DPWH officials

With CCAGG staff and volunteers

Soon after we were joined by foreign NGO delegates here in the country for a public procurement related training. As part of their training, they were given an orientation by Ms. Pura Sumangil, a founding leader of both the CCAGG and NLCGG. The foreign delegation included representatives from India, Mexico and South Africa. During the briefing, we experienced a minor earthquake whose epicenter was estimated to be somewhere in nearby Cagayan province under Region 2. Nothing like a mild tremor to spice your day around!

Ms. Pura Sumangil of CCAGG/NLCGG gives an orientation

While the foreign delegates were being interviewed over the local radio station, I took time to take pictures of the countryside near the top floor of the DZPA building.

Abra is a landlocked province hemmed between the mountain ranges of the Ilocos provinces to the west and the Cordillera mountains to its east. Part of the Cordillera Autonomous Region or CAR, it covers roughly a fifth of the region’s land area, easily making it the largest province in that locality. Mostly descendants of Ilocano settlers and members of the Tingguian tribe, residents of the province numbered more than 230,000 according to a 2007 population survey.
Not part of any regular sightseeing brochure, Abra is no where to be found in the Arroyo government’s so-called “Philippine Tourism Highway”. Its history of political violence and warlordism doesn’t help change that. Rather, it shuns away tourist and possible investors that could bring greater development to its people.

That’s the great tragedy. As I soon discovered during our stay in this province, relatively devoid of the decadence and degradation that accompanies unbridled commercial development of a locality, agriculturally-based Abra remained quite the unspoiled paradise it has been for so many years. Much of the area within its 27 municipalities has remained the same…as if time had stood still.

Sadly, unscrupulous politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen have exploited Abra’s poverty and rugged terrain for their illicit enrichment. Civil works like bridges across the great Abra River supposedly to promote progress and development into the province ended up incomplete and utterly useless. Corruption was definitely pervasive across Abra’s political landscape. This led to the creation of the CCAGG in 1986 and as they say, the rest is history.

Bangued is nestled in a valley between the majestic mountains of Abra

A simple sumptuous lunch is served!

After lunch, we accompanied the foreign delegates to the first government civil works site we were to observe CCAGG’s project monitoring activities. Located around five (5) kilometers from the town proper, we inspected the on-going bridge construction in Barangay Calaba and adjacent Barangay Modeng of the municipality of La Paz.

The Calaba Bridge up close and personal








Nearly a kilometer in length, the Calaba bridge is finally near its completion

The construction of the Calaba bridge and approaches were funded through national government funds with financial assistance from the Austrian government. It was supposed to have been completed (based on the DPWH’s own target date) mid-August of last year, but for decades that has been the sad story for many of the bridges in Abra.

People, goods and vehicles are ferried across the great Abra river

Engr. Rene Brasuela of CCAGG inspects the on-going construction

All in a day’s work!