ARMM builds another trading route in Teduray hometown

MAGUINDANAO --- The government started building Friday an 8.2 kilometer trading route connecting two historic, centuries-old trading enclaves of non-Moro ethnic Tedurays in Upi town.The road will link Blensong, a hinterland agricultural area home to Teduray families, and Nuro, the center of Upi town in the first district of Maguindanao.Upi Mayor Ramon Piang and Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao led Friday’s symbolic launching of the project.The ARMM regional government will bankroll the construction and concreting of the Blensong-Nuro road through the regional public works department.Piang said the road project, costing P140 million, will benefit no fewer than 20,000 Muslim and Christian farming families. So important is this road to us. Barangay Blensong is a major producer of corn and other short-term crops. With a concrete road connecting the area to Nuro, farmers there can deliver promptly their harvests to buyers in the lowlands, Piang said.Upi is a predominantly Teduray municipality, whose Muslim and Christian residents rely mainly on farming and livestock raising as sources of income.The road project, to be implemented within 451 working days, is funded out of the regular infrastructure allocation for 2018 of the Department of Public Works and Highways-ARMM.Hataman’s public works secretary, Engineer Don Loong, was also present in the groundbreaking ceremony that signalled the start of the construction of the Blensong-Nuro road.Piang said since 2013, the office of Hataman has constructed in Upi a total of 31 kilometers of farm-to-market roads and larger thoroughfares costing P483.7 million.