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ARROYO |
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Two
days before the Bohol Irrigation Project Stage-2 (BHIP-2)
will be inaugurated by Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,
farmers groups are again protesting against the "inefficiency
of the irrigation facility" that has dislocated
farmers and is "tainted by corruption."
BHIP-2,
also known as Bayongan Dam and considered as one of
the most expensive irrigation projects being undertaken
in the country, will be unveiled by Pres. Arroyo at
10 a.m. on Friday.
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The
Hugpong sa Mag-uuman Bol-anon (Humabol), through Bayan Bohol
secretary general John Ruiz III said in a press statement
that Bayongan Dam dislocated some 300 families of farmers.
Ruiz
III claimed the project is not environmentally friendly and
has no dependable source of water other than rain and the
supposed excess water coming from Malinao Dam in Pilar (BHIP-1).
While
the National Irrigation Authority collects service fees from
farmers in the dam's service areas, Ruiz said, it is just
an additional cost of production and that the farmers' output
would not increase.
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As
proven in Malinao Dam (BHIP-1), it failed to irrigate
more than a thousand hectares of its expected beneficiaries,
or some four thousand hectares of its service area,
Ruiz said.
As
a result, there are more than a thousand hectares of
land that has become unproductive after the land leveling
has been done to the targeted beneficiary areas, said
Ruiz, "the promised benefits of the project was
never realized."
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"Worse,
hundreds of farmers acquired huge debts as payment of the
land leveling service that led to its un-productivity instead,"
the Bayan leader added.
According
to Ruiz, the turn-over ceremony of the said project by Pres.
Arroyo this Friday, even though the entire irrigation facility
"is a clear manipulation so that the controversy surrounding
the expensive project, would quiet down."
"The
dam is now filled with water because first and foremost, it
is rainy season and it is not a planting season, most of the
water coming from Malinao dam has been redirected to Bayongan
Dam to fill it up," he said.
Ruiz
added that Bayongan Dam's "performance to irrigate more
than five thousand hectares of rice land in time of planting
season is really doubtful."
Ruiz
said Bayan, the umbrella organization of Humabol, has a fearless
forecast that "like its predecessor dam, BHIP-1, [Bayongan
Dam] would fail to service its target area by a huge margin."
"Bayan
sees that a large part of the controversies of corruption
and questionable projects in the Arroyo administration involves
in agriculture related projects. Before the 2004 election,
the P728 million fertilizer-fund was released in the name
of the poor Filipino farmers, but as facts would tell, maybe
a few million did reach to a few farmers. As to this day,
those who get the most of the nourishment from the fund never
surface. The one who could have told us, Jocjoc Bolante, is
safe away from the angry and hungry Filipino people,"
the Bayan leader said.
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