GMA to condone unpaid irrigation fees of farmers

CABANATUAN CITY, Philippines – President Arroyo will condone some P5 billion worth of unpaid irrigation service fees (ISFs) and irrigation loan amortizations of farmers as a legacy to the farming sector, it was learned here yesterday.

A highly reliable source told The STAR that the President will sign within this month the Executive Order that would condone the unpaid ISFs of some 700,000 to 800,000 farmers nationwide. A copy of the undated two-page EO draft was leaked to The STAR by a source from the National Irrigation Administration.

The draft EO was titled “Condoning Irrigation Service Fee Arrears in National Irrigation Systems (NIS) and Irrigation Loan Amortization Arrears in Communal Irrigation Systems and prescribing collection and replenishment mechanics, thereof.”

The draft EO noted that many constituent farmers of irrigators’ associations (IAs) in the NIS sustained large amounts of unpaid ISFs while IAs incurred huge unpaid ILAs, a problem that, the order said, “pesters farmers, IAs and NIA.”

Section 3 of the draft EO enjoins NIA and local government units to “cease and desist” from collecting ISF current and back accounts from farmers except from owners of commercial plantations with irrigation delivery contracts with NIA.     

The NIA source, who sought anonymity, said that the condonation plan is meant as a legacy of both President Arroyo and Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap in the remaining months of the Arroyo administration.

Section 6 of the draft order also provides that government, through the Department of Budget and Management, shall provide the NIA annual subsidy through the General Approriations Act commensurate to the foregone ISF collections net of share of IAs, in amounts endorsed by the NIA Board of Directors and approved by the President.

The NIA source said that while the move may be commendable, it would disable NIA and lead to the eventual collapse of the irrigation industry with the deterioration of NIS and CIS.

Laudable move

“On paper, this is a highly laudable move on the part of the President and Secretary Yap as this would spare farmers the burden of paying ISFS. But in reality, this would hurt NIA as irrigation systems are being maintained through ISF collections. The ISFs are NIA’s lifeblood,” he said.

He said that ISF collections, provided under RA 3601, accrue to the NIA’s corporate operating budget for payment of personnel services and maintenance and operating expenses as well as operations and maintenance of NIS, including the Upper Pampanga River Irrigation System, the system that operates the Pantabangan Dam.

“With no ISF collections, you are downgrading NIA’s operations into a mere bureau and you are practically sounding the death knell to us,” he said.

The source said the move was meant to earn brownie points for the Arroyo administration. 

Another NIA official told The STAR that by condoning the unpaid ISFs, the Arroyo administration would, in effect, commit the same mistakes committed by the administration of its predecessor, the Estrada administration. She noted that during the term of then-president Joseph Estrada, he tried to scrap ISF payments through Administrative Order 17 but this backfired on the NIA.