RDC-7 approves dam, economic zone projects

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines – Bohol’s development thrusts got a boost with the approval of irrigation and economic zone projects by the Regional Development Council-Region 7, during its Monday meeting presided over by co-chairman banker Argeo Melisimo.

RDC-7 co-chair Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama initially attended to address the meeting but left shortly to catch a flight for Manila where he was scheduled to meet with President Benigno Aquino III.

Representative Erico Aumentado (2nd dist., Bohol) was the proponent of the approved P7-billion Bohol Northeastern Basin Multipurpose Dam project. It was amended earlier by Bohol Gov. Edgar Chatto to include the establishment of the Bohol Northwest Special Economic Zone.

The dam project, which carries power generation, would be located at Barangay Concepcion in Danao town, and this earned the endorsement by the Chatto-led executive committee of the Provincial Development Council after an ocular visit at the project site earlier.

The ecozone project would cover the towns of Maribojoc, Loon, Calape and Tuigon. It will be an “integrated complex of an international cruise ship port, a transport bulk terminal and container yard and other medium-and-large-scale port related industries,” said Aumentado.

Like its predecessors—Malinao Dam in Pilar town and Bayongan Dam in San Miguel town—the new dam project would provide reliable water supply, sustain rice sufficiency and increase electric demand in Bohol.

Some farmers and other sectors have opposed to the building of another huge dam in the province, but the RDC-7 saw it feasible and beneficial by approving it.

Mayors Eutiquio Bernales Sr. of Ubay town, Louis Thomas Gonzaga of Danao and Jacinto Naraga of San Isidro reportedly expressed support and welcomed the irrigation project. 

The proposed dam is expected to irrigate over 19,000 hectares of rice lands and benefit about 21,000 farmers.

It would mainly rely on the more than 50-square kilometer Inabanga-Wahig river and watershed. It may be able to store some 78.5 million cubic meters of water and produce between 10 and 20 megawatts of power. - THE FREEMAN