Bohol farmers still hurting from irrigation fees

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines – Members of the Bohol irrigators associations (IAs) are still paying irrigation service fees (ISF) that other government officials had wanted to abolish to relieve the farmers.

Leo Loresca, vice-president of the IA provincial federation, said in an exclusive interview that the Tubigon IA he is heading, is paying ISF to the National Irrigation Administration about P65,000 yearly.

The ISF is collected from its members after harvest, which is three sacks of palay for every hectare planted with rice. Each hectare could yield from 110 to 115 cavans of rice per harvest, Loresca said.

Loresca however clarified that not all IA members have a hectare but only less than that. He said the Tubigon IA has more than 573 members tending a total of 153 hectares. Bohol has 130 IAs with a total of at least 19,000 members, who were either served by communal or national irrigation facilities.

Under the NIA, communal facilities are those considered small impounding areas, which has less than 1,000 hectares in service areas, while those with more than 1,000 hectares are classified as national facilities.

Bohol has four major dams, which are national facilities: Malinao in Pilar town with a service area of 4,700 has.; Bayongan in San Miguel (5,300 has.); Capayas in Ubay (1,100 has.); and Tubigon (1,000 has.).

Farmers however raised a howl over the imposition of the ISF, which they said were additional burden to them.

Former Justice secretary Leila de Lima, who breezed here Thursday and attended the meeting, also agreed on freeing the farmers from such fee, Loresca said.

Earlier, Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, who visited Bohol and met with coconut farmers, lamented why irrigator-farmers are burdened with this fee, the service of which he said should be free for the farmers.

Incumbent Representative Arthur Yap (3rd district, Bohol) and former Carmen mayor Conchita ‘Che’ Toribio delos Reyes were also of the same opinion of liberating the Bohol farmers from the bondage of ISF.

Just last week, Yap told The Freeman he had been pushing for agriculture modernization by way of a legislation to help the farmers cope with hardships and expensive farm production costs.

Yap said he was planning to file a House bill that would provide subsidy to farmers like “water irrigation rights wherein the irrigation facilities should be the direct subsidy to the farmers.”

He said that farmers should not be charged such fees as their debts, saying that he’ll try to persuade the NIA to do away also with irrigation fees. (FREEMAN)