LIBMANAN, Camarines Sur - Apparently responding to the request of the parish priest for the government to rehabilitate the aging and faltering irrigation systems here, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last Friday has ordered the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) to conduct a feasibility study on dam construction in the first district here where her son Dato Arroyo was elected congressman.

        Msgr. Manuel Ricafort, parish priest here and head of the Prelature of Libmanan, has raised the problem in irrigation systems here that he said was so costly for the farmers to shoulder aside from its on and off operation.

        Ricafort first relayed the problem of the farmers here to President Macapagal-Arroyo through the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) and undersecretaries who visited and asked him, two weeks before the elections, what the people here need.

        He reiterated the same request during the thanksgiving Mass of Congressman-elect Dato Arroyo at his homily by telling President Macapagal-Arroyo that “Libmanan was once the rice granary of the province and it is not now anymore.”

        After the thanksgiving mass and oath-taking ceremonies of her son, President Macapagal-Arroyo proceeded to the NIA Office in Barangay Handiong here where she met with leaders of the irrigators association.

        Alejandro Nano, president of the BCT Pump Irrigators Association, told her of the high cost of irrigation fees at six cavans of palay per hectare for one cropping season notwithstanding its unreliable operation.

        The NIA facility here called Libmanan-Cabusao Pump Irrigation System (LCPIS), an P85.6M irrigation system the NIA constructed during the Marcos regime, irrigates some 2,195 hectares of ricelands in this town and the neighboring Cabusao town.

        The LCPIS was the first integrated area development project here of the Philippine government and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) which started construction in the late 70s and officially started operating 26 years ago, on June 28, 1981. As an integrated area development project, the LCPIS included as major component the participation from the farmers through the formation of irrigators association.

        The LCPIS runs on four units of pumps driven by an equal number of 250-horse power electric-driven motors that consume P6-M worth of fuel (at present prices) for the two cropping season.

        According to Eduardo Yu, public relations officer of the NIA Bicol Regional Office, including costs of engine oil, staff requirement and overhead, collection of fees from the farmers could not subsidize its operation, much more sustain it without budget provision from the NIA.

        Yu said the LCPIS stopped operation in the second half of 2004 up to the first half of 2006 without enough fund to run the system. He said the inadequate collection of irrigation fees from the farmers who could hardly pay was the reason.

        During the meeting, the farmers suggested to President Macapagal-Arroyo the construction of a dam to save from fuel by making use of gravitational force to distribute irrigation water to the farms.

        President Macapagal-Arroyo ordered Administrator Marcelino Tugaoen Jr. to complete the feasibility study on the dam somewhere in Awayan River that would replace the existing pump system of the LCPIS.

        At present, P22M have been released to the NIA for the on-going rehabilitation of the LCPIS, NIA Regional Manager Alexander A. Reuyan told President Macapagal-Arroyo during the briefing.