Residents of Barangay Coral ni Lopez and members of SUGAR, Gabriela Women’s Party, and the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid para sa Kumpensasyon (Alliance of Farmers for Compensation or AMK) successfully pushed for the completion of the Damiana Bridge on October 1. The day after the people’s protest, materials arrived, and more workers were deployed to the bridge.

Thousands of farmers have, for years, complained about the difficulty of traveling to town and the additional fuel expenses for trucks hauling sugarcane because the R.C. Bridge over the Damiana River in Calaca City, Batangas has remained unfinished.

The R.C. Bridge in Calaca connects Barangay Calantas and Coral ni Lopez. With a ₱24.75 million budget, construction began in 2023 under the company KCE Nishimura Construction and supervised by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) first district Engineering Office. In 2025, its contractors were replaced by A.C. Rivero Construction Firm with a ₱17 million contract. According to the DPWH website, it was marked “completed” in 2024, but Phase 2 is only “25% completed” as of 2025. What Phase 1 involved or why an earlier report claimed the project was already “completed” remains unclear.

According to the Sugarfolks’ Unity for Genuine Agricultural Reform (SUGAR), the bridge project is clearly riddled with corruption. In August, Batangas representative Leandro Leviste exposed DPWH first district Engineering Office’s Abelardo Calalo for offering him a kickback.

Without a bridge, farmers faced serious hardships as they have to take longer routes to reach the town center. They also have to spend ₱500 for tricycle fare for each trip. As the “ilohan” or sugar milling season approaches, sugarcane farmers will again shoulder an additional ₱1,500 in fuel costs for trucks hauling sugarcane from the two barangays.

“The sugar mills already pay too little for sugar, and farmers do not receive production subsidies or compensation whenever calamities damage sugarcane fields. This unfinished bridge only worsens the burdens faced by sugarcane planters and agricultural workers,” the group explained.

“The DPWH surely has many more ghost and substandard projects in Batangas in collusion with contractors and some government officials. We must relentlessly make noise to prompt swift action in fixing roads, bridges, and flood control projects,” the group declared.