A LARGE group of rice farmers on Monday urged Senator Cynthia Villar to set an exemption in the provision of free irrigation service.
In an interview, Benjamin Villanueva, National Confederation of Irrigators Association Inc. secretary-general and Region 4A Federation of Irrigators Association Inc. president, said Villar’s Senate Bill 140 or the Free Irrigation Reform and Restructuring Act of 2016 must provide an exemption to promote equality and fairness, level the playing field and “truly address the real problem at the ground between the poor rice farmers and the wealthy landowners, mostly judges and politicians.”
“Free irrigation must not cover land in excess of three hectares,” he told the Manila Standard.
Villar, Senate committee on agriculture and food chairperson, said the government should provide free irrigation service to revive the agricultural sector and foster sustainable livelihoods among farmers through improvement in farm productivity and increased income.
She filed a measure granting free irrigation for all farmers and stop the collection of such fees and other charges under the power of the National Irrigation Authority.
The senator said “farmers are among the country’s poorest, the present system where farmers who could not pay are deprived of irrigation services is unfair.”
Silvestre Bonto, NCIA president, along with Villanueva, dismissed Villar’s statement, saying many of the landowners are rich, and that they must be charged of irrigation fees.
He, however, lauded the initiative of Villar to create a technical working committee to seek the point of view and position of the NCIA.
“The bill does not provide fishponds, and banana and pineapple plantations with free irrigation. When we came into the picture, we suggested to spare only those three hectares and below from paying irrigation fees, including small communal irrigation systems,” he said.
“This is what President Rodrigo Duterte is saying, the small farmers are pitiful,” Villanueva said, adding “if the government really wants to help them, seeds and equipment must be heavily subsidized, and not just to liberate them of irrigation fees.”
The NCIA is composed of 1.1-million rice farmers nationwide.
Bonto said Villar’s measure, if passed, must not allow any condonation of unpaid irrigation fees in the previous years.
“Small farmers may have an outstanding unfulfilled obligations of about P40 million compared to those with large landholdings amounting to hundreds of millions of pesos,” he said.
He said Villar backed his recommendations to collect the unpaid irrigation fees.
“She asked us if we can be able to collect outstanding debts and we said, yes. She wanted to give us all of it, but Agriculture Emmanuel Pinol opposed it,” he added.
“We suggested 50 percent of the debts to be collected shall go to NCIA, and the other 50 percent to the national treasury through the Office of the Solicitor General.”