Lack of funds stalls ‘Cong Dadong dam’

ARAYAT, Pampanga — The P4.3-billion irrigation component of the Pampanga Development Project, also dubbed as the "Cong Dadong dam," is 97 percent complete but has remained frozen since last December due to the government’s failure to provide the remaining P175 million needed to complete it.

The P175 million represents the Philippine counterpart fund in the project largely financed by a soft loan from the Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC).

The amount is part of the project’s supposed P508-million budget this year but which Congress earlier had reclassified as an unprogrammed appropriation.

Because of this, the project could irrigate only 5,600 hectares of farmlands instead of the targeted 11,920 hectares in this province.

About 160 workers hired for the project have remained unpaid since last December, according to Reynaldo Mencias, Central Luzon director of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).

While only some P175 million is needed to complete the civil works and pay the workers’ salaries, the project still has payables amounting to P360 million for contractors and landowners, and for administrative expenses.

In a letter to Malacañang, Mitsuru Taruki, JBIC’s chief representative, urged the "immediate release" of P175 million to complete the irrigation project and make it fully operational this year.

While the project, consisting of a dam on the slopes of Mt. Arayat and a network of canals farther lowland, has not yet been fully completed, Mencias said it has been irrigating 5,600 hectares of farmlands since last Oct. 16. About 7,000 farming families are expected to benefit from the project once it is completed.

The project was dubbed as the "Cong Dadong dam" in honor of the late former President Diosdado Macapagal, father of President Arroyo and the NIA’s founder.