Farmers and dogs

By Estanislao Albano, Jr.

This is in reaction to the news story “Senator: Maximum 90 years in jail, P7.5 M fine for 30 dogs’ death” which CNN Philippines posted on December 12, 2017 wherein Senator Francis Pangilinan called for the application of the full force of the law on the person responsible for the death of the dogs. Many people specially animal lovers would praise the senator for his concern for the welfare of animals but to farmers in the service area of the Upper Chico River Irrigation System (UCRIS) in Tabuk City, Kalinga and in the towns of Quezon and Mallig in Isabela, his action is a mere affectation.
During Pangilinan’s watch as Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization (PAFSAM) from May 6, 2014 to September 15, 2015 by virtue of which he was also the Board Chairman of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), UCRIS farmers suffered the most devastating disaster in memory. They were unable to plant in the second cropping incurring an estimated P1B worth of unrealized harvest because the irrigation system was waterless from August 20 to December 28, 2015. A 256-meter portion of the main canal was washed out during the height of typhoon Ineng which hit the province on August 20, 2015 and it took four months and P100M from the Quick Response Fund of NIA to get the system back to service.
The washout took place because the contractor of the then ongoing P425M World Bank-funded UCRIS rehabilitation project, Markbilt Construction/RD Policarpio and Co. Inc. (Markbilt), had failed to install the intake gates of the irrigation system before the typhoon struck. The absence of the gates allowed the water of the swollen river to flow unimpeded into the canal. As a measure to protect the canal, the NIA closes the intake gates during storms.
The disaster could have been avoided. As early as late 2014, the UCRIS Federation of Irrigators Association (UCRISFIA) had already been appealing through letters and meetings with NIA officials headed by Administrator Florencio Padernal for the immediate installation of the intake gates which under the work schedule of the rehabilitation should have already been done in June 2014 but these fell on deaf ears. The federation and some sympathetic organizations in the province had also demanded for the rescission of the contract with the Markbilt due to runaway slippage — more than 50 percent at the time of typhoon Ineng — but the NIA authorities refused to heed the clamor.
Throughout the crisis and even if he was made aware of the problem, Pangilinan was unheard from.
On hindsight, it was not just the costly washout which vindicated the clamor of the farmers and their allies for the immediate rescission of the contract with Markbilt. When the contract lapsed early this year after two extensions, it was only 54 percent completed thereby further delaying the completion of the rehabilitation work and the full enjoyment of the usefulness of the irrigation system.
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