Rody tells DA to give farmers free irrigation

DAVAO CITY—President Duterte has ordered the Department of Agriculture to start fulfilling his campaign promise to provide free irrigation to farmers, which could be one of the key points of his State of the Nation Address today.

According to Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, the process to fulfill one of Mr. Duterte’s major promises during the campaign has started.

Piñol said the instruction he got from the President during the last Cabinet meeting was to find ways to give irrigation to farmers for free.

“It’s a commitment to the farmers that we have to fulfill,” Piñol quoted Mr. Duterte as telling him.

He said as soon as he received “that clear directive,” he immediately talked with lawmakers and sought their support for a measure that would mandate free irrigation to poor farmers.

Among those who pledged their support are Representatives Edcel Lagman, Joey Salceda and LRay Villafuerte, and legislators from Leyte and the Samar provinces and those from Central Mindanao.

Piñol said at the Senate, Sen. Franklin Drilon also expressed support for the passage of the measure.

The most enthusiastic response, said Piñol, came from Sen. Loren Legarda “who went berserk when I told her that rice farmers who could not pay irrigation fees are given the red flag by irrigators’ association and deprived of water during the planting season.”

“No, no, no! I will not allow that to happen. Please tell President Duterte that I support his commitment of free irrigation water for Filipino rice farmers,” Piñol quoted Legarda as saying.

Piñol said the free irrigation bill had been filed at the Senate by Sen. Cynthia Villar, chair of the committee on agriculture, who also pledged to “go all out for the realization of the ‘free irrigation’ commitment of President Duterte.”

“With many other pro-agriculture senators like Koko Pimentel, Alan Peter Cayetano, Manny Pacquiao and Kiko Pangilinan, I expect the free irrigation commitment of the President to sail through both the Lower and Upper Houses of Congress smoothly,” he said

Piñol said there were actually two ways to immediately realize the President’s commitment to free irrigation.

One is to provide an additional funding of P4 billion to the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) in the 2017 national budget “so that it will no longer depend on collections from farmers for the salaries of its officials and employees and for its operations.”

Second, he said, is to amend the NIA charter to revert the agency to the Department of Agriculture “instead of being a pseudo government owned corporation that it is today.”

He said amending the NIA charter would ensure that “free irrigation” is no longer a political decision but a government policy. Karlos Manlupig, Inquirer Mindanao