ANGELES CITY – The construction of the P15-billion Balog-Balog megadam (BBM) in Tarlac, a project initiated way back during the term of Pres. Aquino’s mother former Pres. Corazon Aquino, will finally start this July, the National Irrigation Authority (NIA) has announced.
Balog-Balog Multipurpose Project (BBMP) Manager Vicente Vicmudo said the “rock-fill dam” would be 113.5 meters from the riverbed to the crest and would have a water storage capacity of 625 million cubic meters.
Once fully operational by 2016, the BBM is projected to boost rice crop yield by 116.7 thousand metric tons per year with an estimated value of $34.72 million and 94,000 metric tons of tilapia per year, worth P506 million.
Vicmundo said that the BBM project would also include a reservoir of around 150 hectares for tilapia production.
The Peasant Alliance of Central Luzon (PACL) said, however, that the government has yet to make a clear stand on the fate of some 500 families, mostly Aberlin Aetas, as well as other Aeta sub-groups in 27 communities which would be displaced by the project.
PACL noted that the BBM “has been on the government drawing board since 1988, under the (Cory) Aquino government, which signed a deal with the government of Italy to build the dam. It was shelved after the 1990 killer earthquake that destroyed large infrastructures in Central and North Luzon.”
The group recalled that the project was resurrected in 1999, with a price tag of P12 billion.
Former Pres. Estrada visited Tarlac in 2000 to launch the Balog-Balog project. After Estrada was deposed, former Pres. Arroyo submitted the project anew for Japanese government funding.
PACL said that the project would catch water from three big rivers, namely the Tangan-Tangan, Boboy and Malilit Rivers, flowing down from the mountains.
“It would inundate 14 sitios and communities along the three rivers in Barangay Maamot, San Jose and Buboy River in Capas, Tarlac,” the group also noted.
Vicmundo said that apart from irrigation and fishery components, the BBM project would also include a hydro-electric power plant with a total installed capacity of 43.5 megawatts that can supply the present power requirements of Tarlac city or four medium-sized towns with an aggregate population of about 250,000.
The P1.608 billion power plant will be funded through the Pubic-Private Partnership of the Aquino administration, he said, but did not say which private group would be involved.
Meanwhile, PACL noted that markers have already been put in place on the Tarlac-Zambales mountain ranges to pave the way for BBM.
“The military has also been deployed, putting up markers for their shooting range right in the areas being claimed by the Aetas as their ancestral domain.
The military has been setting up checkpoints and patrolling the area so that Aetas are routinely searched by soldiers in case they were carrying items purportedly from the New Peoples’ Army,” PACL reported.
