ILOILO City – The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) regional office rallied public support for its various projects across Western Visayas, including the Jalaur River Multipurpose Project (JRMP) Stage II in Calinog, Iloilo that was highly criticized for being in contact with an active fault.
Its top officials led the signing of a “covenant” that the agency claimed would ensure the “faster and better implementation of irrigation projects and sustainable and reliable irrigation service.”
Local government officials, farmers’ groups and indigenous peoples’ organizations from Iloilo and Guimaras provinces were among those who signed the covenant during a stakeholders’ forum at The Mansion Iloilo on General Luna Street here Friday, Nov. 16.
Prominent figures at the signing were the NIA’s Administrator Ricardo Visaya and Regional Manager Gerardo Corsiga, Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. of Iloilo, and representatives from the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The activity was aimed at ensuring the stakeholders’ “commitment” and “cooperation,” Visaya told reporters. “Lahat ng mga stakeholders ay pumirma doon para ma-implement natin iyong projects successfully.”
“We bind ourselves and our office/organization to give all-out support to National Irrigation Administration to ensure faster and better implementation of its various projects and the provision of sustainable and reliable irrigation services in the area coverage of Iloilo-Guimaras Irrigation Management Office,” read part of the covenant.
“We commit ourselves and our office/organization to assist in resolving problems that delay project implementation such as right-of-way, peace and order, issues on indigenous people, conflicts among water users, and other similar problems,” the covenant read further.
Visaya said one of the projects the agency was rallying public support for was the controversial P11.2-billion JRMP II, which the South Korean government was funding.
At the same time, he said, they also wanted people to back up the following projects:
* Maayon Communal Irrigation System in Maayon, Capiz
* Malogo Irrigation Project in Barangay Consing, EB Magalona, Negros Occidental
* National Irrigation Sector Rehabilitation and Improvement Project in Santa Barbara, Iloilo
* Panay River Basin Integrated Development Project in Tapaz, Capiz
* Cabano Small Reservoir Irrigation Project in San Lorenzo, Guimaras
* Barotac Viejo Small Reservoir Irrigation Project in Barangay Nueva Invencion, Barotac Viejo, Iloilo
* Aklan River Irrigation System Improvement Project in Banga and Malinao towns in Aklan
These projects have a huge impact in the lives of residents, particularly farmers, the NIA Region 6 said.
But critics were wary of the JRMP II in particular, saying the mega dam could become a seismic hazard since it was in contact with the active West Panay Fault.
This criticism – dished out by a group seeking the cancellation of the mega dam project – cropped up again after earthquakes of tectonic origin struck Iloilo and Antique provinces on Nov. 5.
The NIA disregarded scientific facts when it said in a report after a 2011 feasibility study that, while the dam’s project area was in contact with the West Panay Fault, the fault line was “inactive and have no vestiges in movement,” said John Ian Alenciaga, coordinator of the Jalaur River for the People’s Movement.
The latest earthquakes were “clear and solid proofs” that the West Panay Fault is active, said Alenciaga, one of the three environmental activists that the Sangguniang Bayan of Calinog, Iloilo had declared persona non grata for going to South Korea to protest the mega dam construction.
Municipal councilors accused him, Cynthia Deduro and Remia Castor of making “derogatory, untruthful and misleading information,” and insisted that their concerns have all been satisfactorily addressed by government agencies concerned.
Mayor Alex Centena of Calinog, on the other hand, had asked the Police Regional Police Office 6 to deploy more officers to his town, citing the need to protect the people working on the JRMP II from New People’s Army rebels, who he claimed were against the mega dam project.
Said to be the biggest dam outside Luzon, the JRMP II will provide uninterrupted irrigation water to 32,000 hectares of Iloilo farmland, benefit more than 783,000 farmers and increase annual production of rice to 300,000 metric tons from 140,000.
The project includes the construction of 109-meter Jalaur high dam; a 38.5-meter afterbay dam; a 10-meter Alibunan catch dam; a 80.74-kilometer high line canal; generation of new areas for irrigation; and rehabilitation of existing irrigation system./PN
