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NIA-7
office sought here
EIGHT
years after the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) corporate
board passed a resolution to create a regional office for
Central Visayas separate from the Eastern Visayas "mother
office," the same has yet to be implemented.
This
prompted Bohol leaders led by Gov. Erico Aumentado to write
separate but similar letters to NIA Administrator Marcelino
Tugaoen Jr., Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo reminding them of Resolution No. 6904-99
dated September 27, 1999, with a position paper attached.
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During
his 2-1/2-hour marathon meeting in Malacañang
with President Arroyo, Aumentado said she instructed
Secretary Cerge Remonde of the Presidential Management
Staff (PMS) to take the matter up with Tugaoen and Yap.
The
letter signed by Aumentado, Vice Gov. Julius Caesar
Herrera and Reps. Edgar Chatto, Roberto Cajes and Adam
Relson Jala of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Districts respectively
stated that as early as when the resolution was passed,
Central Visayas already had a total of 25,910 hectares
of irrigated rice land. The hectarage already qualifies
the region to its own regional office.
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The
recent inauguration by President Arroyo of the Bayongan Dam
of the Bohol Irrigation Project Stage 2 (BHIP 2) and other
developments since then increased Region 7's irrigated rice
lands into 35,115 hectares. BHIP 2 alone can irrigate 5,300
hectares.
In
the position paper prepared by Engr. Calixto Seroje, provincial
irrigation officer, and recommended by Aumentado, the proposed
regional office will be located at the NIA Compound in Dao
District, Tagbilaran City.
It
has an area of around a hectare, with existing buildings and
other facilities. It is strategically located, being just
1-1/2 hours away by fast craft from Cebu, Dumaguete in Oriental
Negros and Siquijor. It is only an hour by plane from Manila,
with two trips in the morning and another two in the afternoon.
"The
proposed Central Visayas NIA regional office has adequate
earth-moving equipment now stationed in BHIP 2 for the construction
of more rice fields in the irrigable areas, maintenance of
the canals' service roads and the farm-to-market roads traversing
the irrigated areas in the province," the letter stated.
The
Bohol leaders lamented that the present setup of the regional
office in Tacloban City in Leyte "has prejudiced so much
the operations and maintenance of the irrigation facilities
in Bohol and the three other provinces in Region 7."
"The
time loss alone in going to Tacloban City and the bureaucratic
red tape thereat are factors that militate against the development
of agriculture, especially the irrigation component thereof
in Region 7," they said. Meanwhile, in justifying that
the regional office be located in Bohol instead of
Cebu,
Seroje and Aumentado said in Region 7, only Bohol has existing
national irrigation systems - the Bohol Integrated Irrigation
System and BHIP 2, not to mention BHIP 3 that will cover an
additional 2,500 hectares.
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