Probe Casecnan irrigation project ‘mess,’ Diaz urges

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — Presidential Adviser for North Luzon Renato Diaz has sought an investigation into the unfinished P300-million lower irrigation component of the $600-million Casecnan Dam in Nueva Ecija.

Diaz, former chairman of the House ways and means committee, said the contractors got 15 percent of the project cost as mobilization fee, "yet only 15 kilometers of the 64-kilometer main irrigation canal has been finished."

He said some parts of the project, which otherwise should now be providing irrigation to some 50,000 to 60,000 hectares of agricultural land in Nueva Ecija, have been abandoned.

The irrigation project was to benefit ricefields in the towns of Guimba, Cuyapo, Nampicuan, and parts of Sto. Domingo and Licab.

Diaz could not immediately say how much of the project cost had been paid to the contractors, saying he was still gathering more information on alleged anomalies in its implementation.

"We should not allow external forces to adversely affect the implementation of government projects," he said, apparently referring to talks that political intervention had railroaded the project.

"The question is why the contractors got the mobilization fund for projects they could not finish in the first place," he said.

He thus called for "transparency and review of government projects which must be awarded only to contractors with proven track records and financial capabilities."

Diaz said the $600-million Casecnan Dam is set to be inaugurated this September with the completion of its two small dams, a power plant and a tunnel link to the Pantabangan Dam, whose water supply it would augment.

Meanwhile, Diaz said the government is rushing the feasibility and other studies for Phase I of the proposed 80-kilometer Clark-Manila North Railway project, to meet the $1.1-million funding deadline under Japan’s Obuchi Fund.

"The decision is to use the old realignment of the Philippine National Railways, except in some very crowded areas which would be skirted," he said.

He said the proposal to build the new modern railway in the middle of the North Expressway has been junked.

Diaz said Phase I of the North Railway project will have two sections: one extending from Caloocan City to Calumpit, Bulacan, and the other from Calumpit to the Clark special economic zone.

"We are still studying how much the entire length would cost, but the $1.1 million we expect from the Obuchi Fund would probably be enough only for the first (component) of Phase I," Diaz said.

Diaz added though that after the Obuchi Fund’s deadline in March next year, more funds can be expected from the regular funding programs of the Japanese government.