Noy, Drilon accused of cornering P6.9-B irrigation funds

ANGELES CITY, Philippines – Militant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) has accused President Aquino and Senate President Franklin Drilon of allegedly cornering P6.93 billion of the P28.8-billion budget of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) for next year.

KMP secretary general Antonio Flores said Aquino and Drilon reportedly used the amount for pet projects in their respective provinces.

“It appears the Liberal Party is on a fund-raising campaign,” Flores said, adding that irrigation funds are apparently turning out to be a campaign kitty for the 2016 presidential elections.

“The Balog-Balog Multi-Purpose Project, a pet project of the Cojuangco-Aquinos, got P5.745 billion, the largest chunk from the NIA’s budget for 2015. The amount is the biggest allocated for a single irrigation project in Philippine history,” he said.

He said the amount is more than twice the 11-year budget allocated for the project.

Flores said from 2002 to 2013, a total of P2.18 billion was allocated for the Balog-Balog Dam project by the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act and the General Appropriations Act.

He alleged the dam would only serve Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac, when it was supposed to irrigate farmlands in the towns of Concepcion, Gerona, Pura, Ramos, Paniqui, La Paz, Victoria, and Tarlac City.

Flores said the third biggest chunk of P1.19 billion from the NIA budget was allocated to the Jalaur River multipurpose project (JRMP), reportedly a pet project of Drilon in Iloilo.

The JRMP appeared as item No. 44 in the list of projects released by Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, Flores said.

Critics said the JRMP would submerge communities and displace indigenous people from their ancestral lands.

A petition for a writ of kalikasan is pending before the Court of Appeals.

“With the new definition of ‘savings’ in the proposed 2015 budget, the P6.9 billion for Balog-Balog and Jalaur will be very vulnerable to plunder. The Aquino government’s 2015 budget is nothing but a source of corruption,” Flores said.

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