MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has directed the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to work together on irrigation projects to ensure the best use of funds, NIA Administrator Eduardo Guillen said on Tuesday at a Palace briefing.
Guillen said this was Marcos’ directive for the strategic implementation of convergence initiatives for the agriculture sector.
“Our president is Ilocano. That’s why he’s stingy. He wants to maximize funds,” Guillen said in Filipino.
Guillen said NIA had already given the DPWH its list of priority projects.
“Again, we have provided the list of the projects, and the president told Secretary Manny Bonoan of public works to help us. This is unity, right?” he said.
“We hope that the government would implement around P200 billion worth of dam projects to change our agricultural landscape.”
The NIA has so far irrigated 1.5 million hectares of farmlands nationwide, while 500,000 hectares were irrigated by the Department of Agriculture and local governments.
The country has more than three million hectares of irrigable farmlands, according to the NIA.