“Driving to Cagayan Valley in a Breeze”

When I told my co-actors last 22 December 2009 that I would be driving to Tuguegarao City in Cagayan Valley (Region II, Philippines) with my family on the 23^rd of December in time to celebrate christmas eve with my wife's family, all of then showed concerns that I might be having a hard time driving. Dominic Ochoa was quick to ask when was the last time I drove to Cagayan Valley. He warned me that he experienced rough roads undergoing construction specially on Dalton Pass where there were sections that were only one lane was passable, a queue of vehicles had to wait for a long time to let the vehicles on the opposite lane pass first. Lito Pimentel with his with wit added I might lose my vehicle vanity plate (this was a subject of a joke on me, since my wife bought me a vanity plate with the word ACTOR on it). Jaime Fabregas reminded me that his friend used the North Luzon Expressway then the Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway all the way to La Paz, Tarlac leading to Talavara, Nueva Ecija cutting the travel time to Cagayan Valley by escaping the heavy traffic on the stretch of the Maharlika Highway from Cabanatuan City to Plaridel in Bulacan. But Jaime asked if I would be the only driver since the travel time might hit me with over-fatigue. I told him my wife can be my alternate driver.

With these concerns, I decided to go to the Victory Liner bus terminal after our taping to ask first hand information on the road condition. You see, Victory Liner has a regular bus run to Cagayan Valley. I was able to talk to a driver who was about to leave for Cagayan Valley. He assured me travelling to Tuguegarao in Cagayan Valley is absolutely okay. No, one way lanes, no bad roads.

Since I had to report to work after the taping on the 23^rd, I decided to sleep first after office at 6:00 p.m. I told my wife and my daughter that I will just have to catch a quick sleep and that we will leave at midnight of the 24^th.

We left our San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan home and hit the road at exactly 12:16 early morning of the 24^th of December using my Ford Lynx 2005. We entered the Marilao entry of the NLEX and used SCTEX. After we took the La Paz, Tarlac exit, the toll gate cashier told me to take a right turn to Nueva Ecija. It was early morning at 2:00 a.m. when I drove through a well-known New People's Army's lair area in Aliaga, Nueva Ecija then to Talavera and San Jose City all in Nueva Ecija. We reached Sta. Fe in Nueva Viscaya at 3:30 a.m. After making a breeze drive on Dalton Pass, no hassle, no one way lanes, but simply well paved mountain road. I had coffee at a restaurant in Sta. Fe. When we moved on, I let my wife take the wheel till we reached Santiago City in Isabela province at 8:00 a.m. We had a quick breakfast, refueled our car and I took the wheel again until we reached Ilagan City in Isabela. My wife completed our trip until we reached Tuguegarao City at 11:00 a..m. Considering all the stops for coffee, breakfast and refueling which could total to 1 hour, the travel time minus the stops, was a good 10 hours!

We heard mass at the San Gabriel Subdivision Sto. Nino Shrine Parish in Tuguegarao at 10:00 p.m. It was nice to hear the priest who mentioned ABS-CBN's one-liner “Bro, ikaw ang Star ng Pasko”.

Our return trip to Bulacan on 26 December was record-breaking: I drove all by myself from Tuguegarao to San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan, no reliever! It was a 13 hour trip, with about one hour spent for stop overs (breakfast, lunch and refueling), a 30 minute traffic on NLEX caused by a vehicular accident involving two buses and a delivery van in a collision. We left Tuguegarao City at 5:30 a.m. We arrived Bulacan at 6:20 p.m.

I could easily attribute our good travel time to a good performance of Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane, Jr. when he was the Secretary Of Public Works and Highways for a good job in the road repairs on Maharlika Highway to Cagayan Valley. Well, I could safely say, until the next stormy months in June 2010, the road network to Cagayan Valley is nice to travel on!