MikeLigalig.com

By Kit Bagaipo
The Bohol Chronicle

They want their land titles back and demands from the government to pay them in compensatory damages for loss of income in the past ten years.

More than 100 disgruntled farmers attended the dialogue last Monday held at the Bohol Irrigation Project Stage-1 (BHIP-1) offices in Pilar town with project manager Engr. Olympio Galagala in attendance.

However, Gov. Erico Aumentado, Representatives Edgar Chatto, Roberto Cajes and Adam Relson Jala did not show up in the dialogue.

The farmers from Dagohoy town have filed complaints against the National Irrigation Authority (NIA) and signed a petition seeking for a congressional inquiry into the failure of the Bohol Irrigation Project Stage-1 (BHIP-1) to irrigate their land.

Some 30 farmers are leading the proposal of those demanding back their land titles as they were supposed to benefit from the P1.4-billion BHIP-1 (Malinao Dam).

The irrigation project was commissioned in 1996 and was supposed to irrigate some 4,900 hectares of rice fields.

However, since it started operations in 1996, only 65-percent of the dam's service area has been irrigated, according to a NIA evaluation report.

THE COMPLAINT

According to the farmers, in 1996, representatives from NIA surveyed their lands and told them that these were part of the irrigable area of Malinao Dam.

NIA told the farmers that they have to convert their land into rice paddies to benefit from the irrigation project. They were assured of three cropping seasons per year.

Josephina Flordeliza, 69, resident of barangay Caluasan, Dagohoy, said that at first she refused to allow NIA to convert her piece of land into rice paddies as it had several coconut trees and she used to plant cassava, sweet potatoes and bananas in it.

Flordeliza said NIA representatives told her that they will take over the property and its future harvests if she refuses to level her land.

Felicima Luengas, 71, also of barangay Caluasan, Dagohoy, said she did not agree with NIA's offer. However, she was surprised that sometime in 1997, two bulldozers from NIA started levelling her 1-hectare land that had coconut trees, vegetable crops and corn.

A similar fate befell on Primitivo Araiz, 63, who claimed that NIA representatives told him that even if he refuses to convert his 3-hectare property into rice paddies, NIA will still level it as it was part of Malinao's service area.

LOAN OFFER

According to Araiz, those who could not afford to pay for the levelling were offered loans by NIA.

The loan was payable for a period of ten years of which NIA had to take their land titles as collateral.

NIA and the farmers executed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the loan setting the terms of payment and the forfeiture of the properties in favor of NIA if the landowners fail to pay in ten years.

Some of the farmers who did not have titles yet for their properties were made to guarantee the loan with their declaration of real property.

ABANDONED AND INFERTILE

One of the complainants, Roman Rulida, a resident of barangay Caluasan, Dagohoy, who has a 5-hectare lot converted into rice paddies, said he was then utilizing his land by planting corn and cassava which he regularly sold to Philstarch and a part of the land had coconut trees which was also a source of income.

NIA purportedly assured Rulida that he will harvest 3 times every year with the permanent water supply from Malinao Dam.

However, ten years has passed and the farmers claimed they have never seen water flowing from Malinao Dam to their converted properties.

Rulida said NIA did not even construct lateral canals from Malinao Dam going to his rice paddies.

What made matters worse was that the idle lands also lost its fertility as a result of the leveling where the top soil was scraped. The leveling contractors were supposed to return the top soil where important soil nutrients are found, but this was not done, according to Rulida.

"NIA just left our properties after they bulldozed it," Araiz said.

Hence, for the past ten years, the farmers hardly had any income from the converted lands.

Other landowners suffered the same fate of the farmers. Some of them were dismayed and just abandoned their unproductive land to the care of tenants.

MORE LIABILITY

According to the disgruntled farmers, despite the fact that no water from Malinao Dam has reached their area, NIA still collects from them the agreed irrigation service fee (ISF) of P3,000 per year or P1,500 each cropping season.

Thus, even if the farmland owners have minimal harvests from their other rice lands, they were forced to pay the ISF because non-payment of which would entail a 10-percent penalty.

Eugenio Timon Jr., 66, also of barangay Caluasan, Dagohoy, said that NIA leveled his 3-hectare property where he used to plant corn and cassava.

Presently, Timon still owes NIA P59,000 for the leveling.

Despite his unproductive 3-hectare lot, he is compelled to pay NIA P4,500 each cropping season (P1,500 per hectare).

Timon said he could barely pay the ISF through his meager income from another rice field which he cultivates.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=6291.0