THE National Irrigation Administration in Negros Island Region (NIA-NIR) awaits the final ruling on whether the unpaid irrigation services fees of rice farmers will be condoned.
Engineer Mario Sande, regional director of NIA-NIR, said that farmer-member of irrigators’ associations in the region still have obligations to pay pending the law that provides condonation of their back accounts.
Earlier, members of the House of Representatives unanimously approved on third and final reading the bill seeking to provide free irrigation services to farmers.
House Bill 5670, which will become the Free Irrigation Act, seeks to strengthen assistance to farmers, agrarian reform beneficiaries, and members of the indigenous cultural communities by providing them free irrigation services.
Aside from granting full subsidy on irrigation fees, the bill also provides condonation of all unpaid irrigation service fees as well as corresponding penalties.
Sande, however, said the Senate has yet to pass its counterpart bill before a final ruling will be implemented.
“Based on initial pronouncements, the Senate seemed to have opposite views on the matter,” the NIA official said, stressing that as long as there are no final guidelines condoning the unpaid accounts “farmers with balances should not celebrate yet.”
NIA-NIR records showed that as of December 2016, the region has about P230 million in unpaid fees. Even prior to the implementation of free irrigation program in January this year, local farmers are no longer paying their back accounts.
The Negros Island Region Confederation of Irrigators’ Association had earlier expressed dismay over the move to condone unpaid payments.
The group said it is unfair to their members, especially small farmers, who have diligently paid their obligations while the erring ones are being tolerated.
Most farmer-members who have back accounts are actually those who have the capacity to pay, its president Rosemary Caunca said.
Sande said the Senate is expected to pass the bill this year, which will still be reconciled with that of the lower House through the bicameral conference.
Aside from unpaid fees, the Congress’ final version of the bill will also include guidelines on the free irrigation service coverage, he said.
“Both houses have yet to decide whether farmers of bigger farms and plantations will be covered by the program,” Sande said, adding that he is amenable to the idea of making NIA a regular agency, from being a government-owned and controlled corporation.
Sande said the Senate’s proposal is to repeal Republic Act 3601, an act creating NIA, and pass a new law making the latter as a regulatory agency.
“It is more logical than only amending the law taking out from NIA its mandate to collect irrigation service fees as proposed by the House of Representatives,” Sande said, adding that the lower House’s move will only make NIA a losing corporation.