Impact Evaluation of the Cervantes-Mankayan-Abatan Road Project

Description

The Cervantes-Mankayan-Abatan Road Project was contextualized within the development design under the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) for 2001-2004. The plan emphasized the goal of supporting the country’s socio-economic development through the provision of safe and reliable transport services that would support the modernization of the agriculture sector, tourism and the decongestion of Metro Manila. This was directed towards supporting the private sector and facilitating inter- and intra-island travel via networks of roads, bridges, railways, sea and air lanes. Transport development priorities were set on improving the quality of existing infrastructure rather than increasing the quantity of the roads by building new ones. Investments for national roads system then followed this hierarchy: (a) rehabilitation of damaged sections; (b) improvement and widening of heavily travelled roads; and (c) construction of new roads especially developmental roads and missing links in the road network. The plan targeted paved roads at 90 percent of the total national arterial roads existing at that time (16,799 km), from the 70 percent recorded at the beginning of the plan period. The plan scheduled the rehabilitation of the Suyo-Cervantes-Mankayan-Abatan Arterial Road1 within the period 2001-2008.

The impact evaluation aims to assess the road’s contribution in the attainment of the CAR’s RDP development goal on Physical Integration. Specifically, it aims to determine the effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the project, including good practices or lessons learned that may be applied in future similar projects in the region.