In Marinduque during the last decade, provincial and national government have invested quite aggressively in the development of needed infrastructure. Such that there’s probably little catching up to do now with neighboring provinces.
A momentum has gathered all in support of serious tourism promotion and economic development initiatives.
For example, the new road project from the mountains of Boac to the steep slopes in Torrijos that has simply remained a pipe dream for more than six decades is nearing completion now. That includes the building of two bridges.
Boac interior through Brgy. Tumagabok, once regarded so remote it was seriously dreamt about only by politicos in the mid 60’s to establish a separate town there, but it never came to pass.
Now, barangays Hinapulan, Sabong and others
in Boac to the West and Talawan, Sibuyao in Torrijos to the East are seeing four lane road projects in place.
NEDA has reported that in 2016, in support to
the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program, the provincial
government of Marinduque strengthened the improvement of core and priority
rural roads in the province.
Most of the priority road infrastructures of
the provincial government led to
production and tourism areas.
In 2018, two road projects, the
Caigangan-Bagtingon Road in Buenavista was accomplished, as well as the
Boac-Mogpog via Tagwak-Danao, Mataas na Bayan Road.
New road construction and upgrading undertaken was the eight kilometer long Balanacan–Hinanggayon Road in Mogpog providing easy access to the Luzon Datum Marker of 1911, now a major tourist attraction, a convergence project of the DOT and DPWH.
With the new tourism access road built with
an approximate cost of 180 million pesos (Phases 1 and 2), Luzon Datum has
gained more visitors who want to experience a leisurely trip and capture
souvenir photos taken right at the center of the Philippines.
Luzon Datum Marker is the geodetic reference
center of the Philippines where all geodetic surveys in the country are
referenced from, not to mention the reference point of all geographic
positioning systems (GPS) in the globe.
Road to Luzon Datum
By-pass roads from Matandang Gasan to Pangi
and Boac-Mogpog are on-going. When
completed, one can leave Buenavista and drive straight to Balanacan Pier without passing
through the town propers of Gasan, Boac and Mogpog.
Other roads leading to and connecting tour
destinations have also been recently completed: Brgys. Argao, Guisian Mogpog to
Botilao (Sayao Bay,Hacupan Island); Brgy. San Isidro (Bagumbungan Cave) to Brgy
Ipil (Bathala Cave), to name some.
Access is crucial in tourism development,
hence, travel to and from Marinduque is also a concern: More seaports have been constructed and airport
development for a bigger one is in the pipeline as well.
Marelco currently has
supply capacity of 15 megawatts including the power barge to meet the peak load
capacity of about 13 megawatts. There is
also a 3-megawatts generator in
Torrijos currently in the testing phase that would increase the power supply in Marinduque.
PLDT has started connecting Marinduque to Batangas via submarine cable as it continues to improve telco service in the island-province following fiber optic deployment and clamor for it.
.
Encouraged by these strong official and
private sector initiatives, developers have come in to invest some more in tourist
facilities like hotels, resorts and restaurants.
We see the likes of new establishments in
Boac, the capital town, such as Balar Resort and Spa, Hotel Marinduque, Hotel Zenturia,
Marina Marinduque Hotel and Resort, Freedom Eco-Adventure Park, Happyroo Hotel
and Restaurant in Gasan and Amara Resort and Beach Villas in Torrijos among
others.
Noteworthy among newly established restaurants include Villa
Negro in Argao, Mogpog, and there are many more food establishmenrs in all the six municipalities.
Villa Negro Cafe in Argao, Mogpog
Other photos: Screenshots from BaRuzkie Reynes vids
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