NIA seeks unprecedented budget of ₱55 B in 2019

The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) is planning to ask for an unprecedented budget of 155 billion to bankroll its infrastructure projects that are crucial to develop the country's irrigation system.

NIA Spokesperson Pilipina Bermudez said that for next year, the agency will try its best to obtain a budget of P55 billion, which is higher than its actual budget of 141.6 billion this year. The 2019 budget request was also higher than its proposed 150 billion budget for 2018.

NIA is the lead government agency mandated to develop all possible sources of water for irrigation, as well as constructs, restores, and rehabilitates irrigation projects for Filipino farmers.

It is also required to implement the recently forged Republic Act 10969 or the Free Irrigation Services Act, which grants free irrigation to farmers who own not more than eight hectares of land.

In order to sustain the law's implementation, NIA must have an efficient nationwide irrigation system, which can only be possible with the establishment of more irrigation systems in different parts of the country.

"For submission and deliberation with Department of Budget and Management on May 17, our proposed budget for next year is 155.34 billion. Never did NIA has a budget of that scale although we already proposed a more than 150 billion budget last year but it wasn't granted to us," Bermudez said in an interview.

Bermudez said that aside from the implementation of free irrigation act, which would only take up nearly 15 billion from the budget, NIA will need a lot of money to fund its infrastructure projects.

She also said that a bigger chunk of the fund will be used to intensify security on its on-going projects, following the recent rebel attacks on its heavy equipment and bunkhouse.

"Considering that we have a lot of projects located in critical areas, [we really have to spend a lot for security]," Bermudez said.

Some of NIA's irrigation projects in Negros Occidental are now facing delay as some of the agency's heavy equipment, which cost millions, recently fell victim to a rebel attack, which took place less than two months since its equipment in Saranani was also burned by unidentified groups.

This was despite the agency's existing memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to protect the former's highly crucial resources.

NIA, in a statement, said that its heavy equipment and bunkhouse to be used in the construction of its irrigation projects at Barangay Tan-awan in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental were burned by the Mount Cansermon Command (MCC) of the New People’s Army (NPA).

The equipment and bunkhouse, according to NIA, have a combined cost of 17 million.

"The arson incident of the heavy equipment and other tools needed in the irrigation construction would result to the delayed or unaccomplished projects," NIA said in a statement.

When sought for comment, Bermudez said the agency is now in close coordination with the AFP to make sure that this kind of incident won’t happen again.

She also said that the MOA with AFP has already been there even way before the incident happened.

Last year, the lower House, during its plenary session in September, approved the R41billion 2018 budget for NIA, which is 6 percent higher than the R38.3 billion allotted for the irrigation sector in 2017.

Bulk of the approved budget, or the R26.8 billion, is meant for the restoration, repair, and rehabilitation of existing irrigation systems and construction and development of new irrigation systems. The agency is also eyeing to establish pump and special irrigation systems.