“I WILL claim the concreting of the road leading to Can-olin only when I win.” Thus the 21-year-old Rey “Boom-Boom” Bautista said in Visayan when pressed for an answer by local, regional and national media who tried to make it appear that Gov. Erico Aumentado reneged on his promise. True, the governor promised to concrete-pave the provincial road that leads to Can-olin and name it after Boom-Boom – but only if he wins. Aumentado begged to disagree when Cebu media branded him a trapo (traditional politician) for promising to concrete-pave the road but allegedly canceling it when Bautista lost. The governor said Bohol already has a three-year plan of concreting its provincial road networks costing around P359 million.

The priority roads are those connecting municipalities, those leading to tourism destinations and those with heavy volume of traffic, that is, buses, cargo trucks and other vehicles regularly pass through them. The road to Can-olin in question is not among the named priority roads. “Being none of the above, it is due for concreting in 2010 yet. Boom-Boom's win would have compelled me to advance its schedule to say, 2008, because I did make such a promise to Boom-Boom,” the governor said. Where Can-olin is concerned, the project is small but it carries big impact. Because of his loss, the governor no longer needs to play implementation calisthenics. Concreting of that road, to be named after Bautista, would only revert to its original schedule as prepared by the Provincial Engineer's Office, he explained.