Cerilles Cares

𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐓𝐒 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐇 | 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐊𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐙𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐚 𝐏𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐚 𝐌𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠

ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR — When a landslide struck Kumalarang and forced the closure of the Pagadian City–Zamboanga City national road, travel across a major corridor of the Zamboanga Peninsula should have come to a halt. Motorists, buses, cargo trucks, and even emergency travel were expected to stop.

BUT they did not.

Mobility across the region continued because an ALTERNATE ROUTE ALREADY EXISTED, a connected road network was already in place. A crucial decision made years ago saved people today.

Following the landslide, the stretch connecting Poblacion Lakewood, ZDS – Salagmanok, Kumalarang, ZDS – Buug, ZS emerged as a critical lifeline. Traffic was redirected through this corridor, allowing the continuous movement of goods, passengers, and essential services despite the disruption of the main highway.

This was neither coincidence nor luck.

The roads forming this alternate route exist and remain usable today because they were concreted and converted into national roads through legislation, specifically Republic Act No. 10016 and Republic Act No. 10098. These laws were pushed, defended, and approved during the term of former Congressman and 𝒁𝒂𝒎𝒃𝒐𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒂 𝒅𝒆𝒍 𝑺𝒖𝒓 𝑮𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒐𝒓 𝑨𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒐 𝑯. 𝑪𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒔, now serving as 𝑷𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑨𝒅𝒗𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒏𝒂𝒐 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒔.

Supporters noted that the very leader whose vision made these alternate routes possible was once subjected to credit-grabbing by opponents, ridicule, and criticism from those who questioned his vision of value and long-term infrastructure planning.

Yet today, it is precisely those decisions that allow travel to continue despite the Kumalarang landslide.

As the situation underscored, disasters do not care about politics. What matters most, especially during calamities, is whether there is another way out.

In this case, the answer is YES—because someone, years ago, thought ahead.

The incident highlights the difference between short-term thinking and long-term vision. While the public may forget who authored the laws or who debated and defended every paragraph, they will remember the road that carried them home when the main route collapsed.

That road is Cerilles’s legacy—written not in speeches or social media posts, but in concrete, accessible, and sustainably planned roads.

Progress is not always loud. During their time, the Cerilles administration did not place faces on government-funded infra-projects. Instead, the focus was on preparedness, always on the future—saving time, livelihoods, and lives.

As traffic continues to flow through the alternate routes amid the Kumalarang landslide, the message has become clear: infrastructure is not about applause. When calamity strikes, the infra-project speaks for itself.

And today, these roads did exactly that!