Road to Suratos

By Al S. Mendoza

THERE are stretches of roads between Tarlac and Camiling where concrete roads are being punctured by heavy equipment traversing them every now and then.

Motorists can see that the roads are under repair.

But my golly, they completely, literally destroy the roads there only to rebuild the same roads.

Tarlac must be that rich that it can waste a lot of money destroying and rebuilding those portions of the Romulo Highway.

The funny thing there is, after the roads are punctured with holes, they are left untouched for days. You feel like being electrocuted each time you traverse the roads there.

There ought to be a law prohibiting this practice as it totally inconveniences motorists.

Long traffic jams are now commonplace as a result of this indifference to the public, derailing even appointments of travelers both north-bound and south-bound.

Twice I was a victim when I visited my land of birth in July and August.

Both times, my appointments in Mangatarem and in Lingayen and Dagupan got jeopardized because of travel delays on those said roads-under-repair (kuno).

Each time, my lunch dates got delayed by hours.

The only consolation was, my family and friends had a sumptuous meal at Suratos in Binmaley the second time I got struck by traffic jams in Tarlac.

Why, we had the most delicious meal in years at Suratos that even if we had our lunch at nearly 3 p.m., all our travel woes had been thoroughly forgotten. Burp!

I’m also glad that that stretch of road between Binmaley and Lingayen, which is surrounded by fish ponds, is being frenziedly concreted by Guv Spines.

I heard that Spines started the concreting of that road when he was still a congressman.

I raise a glass to Guv Spines because although that road is provincial and therefore the concern of the provincial government, he took it upon himself to start the concreting of the road using his congressional funds.

No wonder he virtually won by a landslide in the last May 14 polls.

With Spines as the new governor, he can complete the concreting without much hassle anymore.

And   speaking  once  more of   the off-the-highway Suratos restaurant not far from  the once famous Bangsal restaurant by the highway, it is heartwarming to note that the owner of the eatery herself does the buying of bangus and other culinary delights for her joint every morning at five.

Her job routine is the stuff that helps maintain the quality of food in the restaurant.  When owners leave the “marketing” to their employees, it happens usually that quality is undermined.

Suratos is just actually one of many restaurants located in that tiny paradise of a food haven   in this corner of the globe.

It is quite far at the moment from “civilization” but when the concreting of the road up there gets completed, it’d be a breeze going to Suratos.

That road will also cut down travel time from my beloved Mangatarem to Dagupan by maybe about 20 minutes as it will serve as a by-pass Lingayen road from Mangatarem to Dagupan very soon.

Here’s to you, Guv Spines.

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/general-admission/)

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