Privatization, corruption caused drought in Cagayan Valley, groups said

The left-wing Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP, Peasant Movement of the Philippines) and Danggayan Dagiti Mannalon ti Cagayan Valley (Danggayan-CV, KMP Cagayan Valley) said that Arroyo government’s policies and programs caused the P3-billion damages to crops due intense dry season.

“The Arroyo gov’t should be held responsible for the problems farmers in Cagayan Valley are facing. With her policies of privatization, Magat Dam which was formerly multi-purpose is now profit-oriented and corruption causing massive destruction to the environment and absence of support and services to the farmers. the region is plagued with mining, logging and eco-tourism zones that altered the ecosystem,” said Danilo Ramos, KMP Secretary-General in a press statement.

Dam for profit
Magat dam is part of the Magat River Multi-purpose Project which was financed by the World Bank (WB) and with a purpose to improve the existing Magat River Irrigation System, to triple rice production in the Cagayan river basin. The irrigation facilities, including the reservoir and intake gates to the hydroelectric plant, the dam itself were owned by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), while the hydroelectic plant was owned by the National Power Corp. (Napocor). As Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pushed for the Electric Power Industry Reforms Act of 2001 (EPIRA), the hydroelectric plant was privatized with SN Aboitiz Power, Inc. winning the bid in 2006 and acquiring it on April 2007. It is a joint venture of Aboitize Equity Venture and the Norwegian SN Power Invest.

The groups said that privatization gave the power to SN Aboitiz to monopolize water which should be communally owned and used. The farmers are calling for its release of the water along Cagayan river so that it could irrigate their crops but operators said managers from Manila would not allow them to.

“When dams are operated for profit, calamity occurs. During the rainy season, it caused the flash floods in Pangasinan when the managers of San Roque Dam, waited for a critical level before releasing water to maximize power generation cum profit, thus, causing massive flash floods destroying farms and houses of farmers in the province. During dry season, SN Aboitiz managers seal up dams to fill up water primarily for power generation and profit, causing the drying out of crops in the region,” Ramos said.

Mining and logging
Aside from the Magat dam problem, Cagayan Valley is plagued with mining and logging operations that affected the watersheds causing low levels of water to reservoir and Magat dam. The groups said that they were allowed by the Arroyo gov’t through the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) though their effects are environmentally hazardous.

Danggayan-CV said that the Arroyo government paved the way for the entry of Oxiana Limited, Royalco, Metex PLC, Australian mining giants and OceanaGold of Australia and New Zealand in Nueva Vizcaya and Royal Northern Mining Corp. in Cagayan. In addition, destruction of ecosystems is worsened by massive commercial fishing by Taiwanese, mining, and Land Use Conversions (LUC) usually for eco-tourism projects. The 20-years of logging in the region left only 40% of the forest area. Five logging giants operate in the regions such as the Furniture Group, Inc. owned by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile covering 74,500 hectares in Cagayan-Apayao area, Liberty Logging Corp., Luzmatim in Isabela, Pacific Timber Export Corp. in Quirino, Aurora and FCA Timber Dev’t Corp in Quirino-Nueva Vizcaya area.

The farmers said that these environmentally-destructive projects are the root causes of flash floods during rainy season and drying up of water systems that they used to tap for irrigation during the dry season.

Calamity after calamity
KMP said that Cagayan farmers have recently faced with a man-made economic catastrophe on July last year, when prices of corn fell down to P7 per kg, a result of importation of 1.3 million metric tons of wheat and 300,000 metric tons of yellow corn during the first half of 2009. Mill owners and feed producers have done so as Arroyo has issued Executive Order 765 encouraging them to import to anticipate a 800,000 metric tons shortfall in yellow corn production. Thus, corn farmers have been put into worse poverty and hunger.

On October, farmers faced typhoon Pepeng which damaged about P2.4-billion of rice and corn crops, P695,000 on livestock, P108-million on high-value crops and P21-million on fisheries. Aside from agricultural production, their houses and infrastructures in the region were badly affected.

This February, they are again faced with man-made triggered effects of climate change. Cagayan Valley farmers estimate that the damage to crops now amount to P3-billion, P2.4-billion in Isabela and P600,000 in Cagayan. Damage to corn crops was pegged at almost P1.5-billion. The extreme dry season or “almost no rainfall” have affected 80 – 95% of rice crops and corn crops are worse damaged. By March, farmers said that crops would be totally destroyed.

Among Isabela districts, 3rd district was the most hit with P529-million on corn crops and P468-million on rice crops. This is composed of 9 city and towns, Cauayan City, Angadanan, Alicia, Luna, Reina Mercedes, San Guillermo, Gamu, San Mateo and Naguilian. Cauayan City was the most damaged with P331-million on corn crops and P250-million on rice.

Danggayan-CV also said that non-irrigation would be a major cause as 60% of Cagayan farms are not irrigated. Also, as early as first week of February, the Magat dam has stopped supplying the irrigation system and water levels on deep wells declined to 30%.

At present, farmers are now calling for relief such as food as it is becoming clear that the gov’t is not capable of resolving the crisis. KMP said that Cagayan Valley farmers are extremely in need as they are periodically confronting calamities, 2 of man-made and 1 of natural causes.

Corruption kicks off
Danggayan-CV said that they have been alerting officials of local gov’t units (LGUs), provincial and regional offices of the DA as early as November 2009, but faced with deaf ears. Came January, majority of the crops have been damaged and on February 15, Cagayan governor declared a state of calamity.

On January 26, Task Force El Niño was formed headed by DA Sec. Arthur Yap, backed by a P1.7-billion budget. The immediate answer of the DA was cloudseeding, giving out of waterpumps, tubes and pipes, seeds and fuel subsidy.

However, Danggayan-CV said that cloudseeding is ineffective and still no rain has come. They have reported that one cost of cloudseeding operation amounts to P100,000 and DA has implemented it since first week of February.

“A DA official once told me that, cloudseeding is one of their favorite operation as it is very hard to be accounted for. We should look into how they do cloudseeding and why there is still no rain, it is like they are throwing public money in the sky,” said Ramos.

Also, Danggayan-CV also complained about the DA giving the subsidy of seeds and fertilizers to a military-backed partylist group and they are requiring farmers to be members in order to be beneficiaries. KMP and Danggayan-CV called for a thorough examination of the Task Force El Niño funds as Cagayan Valley farmers are yet to sense gov’t efforts.

Cancellation of NIA back accounts, debts
Danggayan-CV primarily called for the cancellation of NIA back accounts which farmers continuously pay for even their farms are not irrigated. They are calling for the abolition of this policy as it is unjust and unfair to pay for something you did not acquire. Moreover, they are calling for a moratorium on debt payments as their loan from landlords and traders did not materialize with crops being destroyed.

As Cagayan Valley farmers to concert their efforts, they would hold a dialogue with Sec. Yap on and protest at Mendiola on March 5 to call on the immediate relief and rehabilitation of Cagayan Valley.

“This is very serious as there is a probability that farmers would die of hunger. We are calling on all sectors to support their calls for relief and join us in drumming up their issue,” called Ramos. #