IT IS not only the barangay chairmen of Candaba that are smarting from the righteous rage of the Honorable Dr. Anna York P. Bondoc-Sagum, representative of the 4th District of Pampanga.
While the village chiefs were deprived of their service vehicles, the officials of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) in Central Luzon were deflated of their self-worth, being called “incompetent” by the congresswoman. “Inutile” would have been more appropriate for the issue at hand, but the lady solon might have deemed it too undiplomatic.
The NIA officials’ fault: ignoring the complaints from farmers of her district, and failing to inform her of the water crisis befallen the ricelands of San Simon, Apalit, San Luis, and Candaba. So we read in Sun-Star Pampanga.
Bondoc-Sagum, so the story said, was assured “every week” by NIA Directors Manuel Collado and Mar Santos of adequate water supply from the Angat-Maasim River Irrigation System (AMRIS) for the over 6,000 hectares of ricelands in the four towns.
It took a call from a farmer for Bondoc-Sagum to know the real score – a water crisis already obtained in her district: “The farmer was asking me why I did not know about the water problem. It was only then that I found out na masisira na ang mga palayan.”
Bondoc-Sagum’s compounded problems with the irrigation agency were further complexed by her unreturned calls to NIA Administrator Antonio Nangel himself. All she wanted, so it was reported, was to meet with the latter to discuss the dire situation the farmers faced in her district.
It took a meeting with officials of the National Water Resources Board, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System and AMRIS, along with Bulacan Governor Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado whose farmers were in similar straits, for Bondoc-Sagum to find some alleviating measures – the NWRB ordering the release of water for the irrigation of Pampanga and Bulacan ricelands from September 30 to October 9.
To Bondoc-Sagum, the water crisis could have been arrested earlier, had the NIA kept her informed about the real situation.
It was not the first time, Bondoc-Sagum recalled, that the NIA deprived her of her right to know as representative of the people. Last summer, NIA failed to keep her abreast of the complications the impending El Nino phenomenon was to wreak on the farmlands.
“They’re not doing their duty,” ranted the congresswoman and raged: “If the NIA continues to ignore the plight of the farmers, they should be replaced or fired.”
To her, NIA’s sins of omission, its dereliction in its duty to the farmers is further manifest in the agency’s failure to rehabilitate irrigation canals in San Simon, Apalit and San Luis either damaged or destroyed by Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng over a year ago.
So NIA claimed lack of funds for repair of the canals, Bondoc-Sagum said, “Pero they have midnight releases of funds for Candaba alone. Bakit isa lang ang tinutulungan ng NIA? How about the other three municipalities?”
Candaba. And all the nightmares it conjures: Mayor Jerry Pelayo, the defeated but defiant Rene Maglanque, the barangay chairmen that campaigned against her, the destroyed signages for her projects. Ay, there’s the rub.
No forgiveness to NIA immediately forthcoming from the Con-Doctora.
While the village chiefs were deprived of their service vehicles, the officials of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) in Central Luzon were deflated of their self-worth, being called “incompetent” by the congresswoman. “Inutile” would have been more appropriate for the issue at hand, but the lady solon might have deemed it too undiplomatic.
The NIA officials’ fault: ignoring the complaints from farmers of her district, and failing to inform her of the water crisis befallen the ricelands of San Simon, Apalit, San Luis, and Candaba. So we read in Sun-Star Pampanga.
Bondoc-Sagum, so the story said, was assured “every week” by NIA Directors Manuel Collado and Mar Santos of adequate water supply from the Angat-Maasim River Irrigation System (AMRIS) for the over 6,000 hectares of ricelands in the four towns.
It took a call from a farmer for Bondoc-Sagum to know the real score – a water crisis already obtained in her district: “The farmer was asking me why I did not know about the water problem. It was only then that I found out na masisira na ang mga palayan.”
Bondoc-Sagum’s compounded problems with the irrigation agency were further complexed by her unreturned calls to NIA Administrator Antonio Nangel himself. All she wanted, so it was reported, was to meet with the latter to discuss the dire situation the farmers faced in her district.
It took a meeting with officials of the National Water Resources Board, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System and AMRIS, along with Bulacan Governor Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado whose farmers were in similar straits, for Bondoc-Sagum to find some alleviating measures – the NWRB ordering the release of water for the irrigation of Pampanga and Bulacan ricelands from September 30 to October 9.
To Bondoc-Sagum, the water crisis could have been arrested earlier, had the NIA kept her informed about the real situation.
It was not the first time, Bondoc-Sagum recalled, that the NIA deprived her of her right to know as representative of the people. Last summer, NIA failed to keep her abreast of the complications the impending El Nino phenomenon was to wreak on the farmlands.
“They’re not doing their duty,” ranted the congresswoman and raged: “If the NIA continues to ignore the plight of the farmers, they should be replaced or fired.”
To her, NIA’s sins of omission, its dereliction in its duty to the farmers is further manifest in the agency’s failure to rehabilitate irrigation canals in San Simon, Apalit and San Luis either damaged or destroyed by Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng over a year ago.
So NIA claimed lack of funds for repair of the canals, Bondoc-Sagum said, “Pero they have midnight releases of funds for Candaba alone. Bakit isa lang ang tinutulungan ng NIA? How about the other three municipalities?”
Candaba. And all the nightmares it conjures: Mayor Jerry Pelayo, the defeated but defiant Rene Maglanque, the barangay chairmen that campaigned against her, the destroyed signages for her projects. Ay, there’s the rub.
No forgiveness to NIA immediately forthcoming from the Con-Doctora.
