Central Marinduque Slowly but Surely Now

Marinduque's beaches and islets that you could own for a day are just waiting here to be conquered. Yet for some the mountains also beckon. But scarcely served by the familiar jeepney, interior mountain roads may be not as hard as before to reach now.

The development of central Marinduque that involves connecting Boac to the east and Torrijos to the west by an interior road that cuts through rivers and mountains was articulated by former governor Aristeo Lecaroz some forty years ago.

The administration of Marcos, Aquino, Ramos, Estrada, Arroyo - five presidents - have also come and gone during the last four decades with Marinduque remaining a predominantly lethargic fourth class province all the while.

The Lecaroz concept (he's 82 and has long retired from public service), is still a cherished dream, a dream being nurtured by many local leaders, thus the development of the Marinduque interiors, although decidedly protracted, is a continuing process.

For once, central Marinduque is being bruited about again by developers as a future garden city.

It must be stated that under the Strong Infrastructure Program of President Arroyo, with no hullabaloo, the province of Marinduque did receive support for national road programs implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), under Sec. Ebdane.

This included the Balimbing-Bantay Road, the Poblacion Torrijos-Maranlig Road,

and the construction of Hinapulan-Tumagabok Bridge.

The Yook-Libas-Lipata road that leads to Bellarocca Island Resort in Buenavista and intermittent sections of the circumferential road from Buenavista to Torrijos are part of DPWH's road improvement projects.

In 2008 a total of 300-million pesos has been released for these projects and 130-million pesos during the first half of 2009 by PGMA.