THE militant farmers group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas on Wednesday urged the House of Representatives to expedite the approval of free irrigation bills in Congress, amid the controversy after National Irrigation Administration head Peter Laviña was fired by President Rodrigo Duterte due to corruption allegations.
“What happened to the government’s promise of free irrigation? We need to be assured that there will be no collection of irrigation service fees from farmers and irrigators associations,” said KMP secretary-general Antonio Flores in a statement.
“We urge Congress to fast-track the approval of the free irrigation bills which has gathered strong support from farmers, legislators, irrigators associations and even government agencies,” said Flores.
“In the absence of a law on free irrigation, the NIA should issue clear-cut guidelines on non-collection of irrigation service fees,” Flores said.
Last year, the Department of Agriculture and the NIA announced that irrigation services would be free starting 2017.
Congress alloted an additional P2 billion for the NIA this fiscal year to cover the ISF collected by the agency from farmers’ irrigators associations.
The allocation would be used to cover the operating requirements of NIA and the maintenance of existing irrigation facilities which were previously funded out of the collections from ISF.
The KMP said it would launch actions in the coming weeks to press for long-overdue free irrigation.
Laviña was fired by Duterte, a labor leader said Wednesday.
Federation of Free Workers president Sonny Matula said Duterte told labor leaders during their dialogue last Monday in Malacañang that he removed Laviña to demonstrate that he meant business against corruption.
“In our meeting last Monday, he said to the workers group that he takes seriously his campaign commitment. Top priorities in his list are corruption, crime/drugs, and contractualization,” Matula said.
“The President said last Monday that Laviña was removed two days ago,” he added.
Laviña on Wednesday said he “left” NIA to spare Duterte from embarrassing corruption accusations.
“To spare the President from these embarrassing stories, particularly in these times of intensified attacks on him, I have quietly left government. I have neither personal vested interest in it nor ill intent towards NIA and the whole government, which we are trying to reform,” Laviña said in a post on Facebook.
Duterte removed Laviña because of the alleged 40 percent kickback in NIA projects.
Duterte on Friday last week also said he removed an official from Davao City because of corruption allegations.
“When I said there will be no corruption, there will be no corruption. As a matter of fact, I fired last night one (from Davao)…” he said
The President did not identify the official.
Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella dismissed reports about the supposed firing of Laviña and read Cabinet Secretary Leoncio “Jun” Evasco’s statement that the NIA head tendered his resignation. “Let’s go by with what’s stated. He tendered his resignation,” he said.
Laviña was Duterte camp’s spokesperson during the May 2016 presidential election.