Road Trip: Surigao Pacific Rim

Another weekend road trip in the long and winding road of the Surigao Pacific Rim.

Surigao del Norte province being located in the Northeastern tip of Mindanao and geographically close to the pacific, with the Philippine Deep being tagged to its name, is connected to the rest of the provinces in the South composed of the Province of Surigao del Sur, Bislig City and part of Davao Oriental through the coastal road which is endowed with a scenic ocean views facing the pacific.

In August 11, 1997, under the administration of President Fidel V. Ramos, a Memorandum of Agreement was entered between and among the Office of the President in Mindanao, the Province of Davao Oriental in Southern Mindanao, the City of Surigao and the Provinces of Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur in Caraga Region, the NEDA Offices, the Mindanao Business Council and the Local CCIs to establish the Mindanao-Pacific Rim Growth Corridor Project, now popularly known as Surigao-Davao Oriental Pacific Rim or SUDOPARIM.

The objective of the project is to promote and expand an effective and mutually beneficial cooperation in the development of the said areas within the bound of their capabilities. Number one priority is the concreting of the coastal roads located in the municipalities of Placer, Bacuag, Gigaquit, and Claver in the Province of Surigao del Norte and the municipalities of Carrascal, Cantilan, Madrid, Carmen, and Lanuza in the Province of Surigao del Sur.

In the past decades, travelers from these provinces experienced the "lukso-rious" trips, with the term implying the uncomfortable bouncing and shaking of transport vehicles plying in the rough and muddy roads along Nubenta, an end point connecting the two Surigao provinces. Silly, a car passsing through that area can be recognized through the color of the mud painting its rears, the rusty light brown color of the soil rich in Chromite.

In a recent development in the SUDOPARIM Project, the Gigaquit-Claver area road concreting is 97% complete. These two municipalities located along the coastline are the last municipalities before the Nubenta. And so after learning about these developments, we agreed to take a look and experience the "lukso-rious" no more.

Taking a left turn at the municipality of Placer junction brought us to the SUDOPARIM route.

Then took a straight path following the major road down south which brought us to the next municipality, Bacuag. We took a turn at its Poblacion and rest for a while in its brown sand shoreline.

Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church, Bacuag, Surigao del Norte

And then went on with the ride to the next municipality, Gigaquit.

An attention-catching river of cool emerald waters bordered with green vegetation made us stop along the bridge for a photo ops.


Then headed down to the next municipality, Claver.

Photo ops in the breezy point of Claver, with the Bucas Grande Islands from afar in the background

Along the ongoing road construction project is a good view deck of the Taganito Mining Company's mine site, a huge claim of chromite mines.

Our road trip concluded in Claver. After making the most in there, we immediately went back home. This time very confident that the trip will not cost us so many hours because it was already concreted, much more comfortable and accessible.