HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

* 558

HOUSE BILL NO.

BILLS AND OER seA\isl

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES
ARIEL B. CASILAO
CARLOS ISAGANI T. ZARATE, EMMI A. DE JESUS, ANTONIO L. TINIO,
ARLENE D. BROSAS, FRANCE L. CASTRO, AND SARAH JANE I. ELAGO

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The national economy is predominantly agricultural. Majority of the
population in fact belong to the countryside and source their livelihood from
agricultural production. Philippine agriculture however has long been characterized
as backward, manual and small-scale, with the social context of landlessness being
the defining factor that has brought about more than a hundred years of extreme
poverty to millions of Filipino peasants.

The underdevelopment of peasant communities in the country is generally
typified by, among other impediments to the growth of Philippine rural economy,
the continuing imposition of land rent on tenant farmers, the unmitigated
onslaught of usury, and the vicious underpricing of farm products that goes along
with the exorbitant cost of farm inputs.

Such dire circumstance is further exacerbated by the apparent lack or utter
absence of state support to agriculture and the reneging of concerned government
agencies on its service function to vital areas of production such as irrigation.

Irrigation is one of the primary factors for the growth of agricultural
productivity. It is crucial especially in the production of major staples - rice and
corn ~ and is therefore key in ensuring the country’s food security. It likewise plays
an important role in making crop diversification viable, enhancing multi-cropping
even during the dry season.

Given the strategic importance of irrigation in pursuing sustained
agricultural growth and development, rice self-sufficiency, food security, and the
upliftment of the welfare of Filipino farmers, it is the obligation of the state to
provide free irrigation services.


There is however much to be desired in the efforts of the state in providing
irrigation in the countryside. In 2015, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA)
claimed that irrigation development has only reached 57 percent or 1.7 million
hectares of land supposedly irrigated out of the targetted 3 million hectares. At
least 1.3 million hectare thus are still without irrigation.

‘The Philippine Statistics Authority meanwhile said in 2013 that 61 percent
of the country’s rice farms are irrigated through the National Irrigation Sistem
(NIS). It should be noted however that the NIS covers only 31 percent of the entire
irrigation millieu in the country which includes, among others, smaller but
widespread localized or communal irrigation systems.

Worse, previous national administrations, including the last Aquino
administration which wholly embraced and adopted the World Bank’s principle
that water resource is a commodity, have implemented various finance
mechanisms to collect irrigation service fees (ISFs) from farmers.

So-called farmer-beneficiaries of the NIS program administered by the NIA
and the Irrigators Associations (IA) under the Communal Irrigation Systems (CIS)
are forced to pay expensive ISFs. This has led to huge amount of back accounts or
unpaid ISFs. These back accounts, which are imposed with penalties and interests,
have further burdened the already poor farmers with bigger debts.

Amid the clamor of peasant organizations against irrigation fees, the Aquino
administration through the NIA has time and again justified the imposition of ISFs
by saying that it is where the salaries of the agency’s personnel are sourced. Such
claim not only runs counter to the assumption that irrigation is a social service and
should be provided at no cost to the beneficiearies, but also falsely presents a
situation where NIA employees’ sallaries could not be sourced elsewhere or could
not possibly be defrayed from the NIA’s budget or savings. NIA’s budget has in fact
ballooned from P1.7 billion in 2013 to P32.7 billion in 2016.

Moreover, despite the fact that water, as a natural resource, beiongs to the
people and should not be subjected to the control and utilization of local and
foreign big corporations for profit, previous governments have promoted the
privatization of water services to the sole advantage of private businesses and to
the detriment of the people especially the farmers especially through the Aquino
administration’s so-called Public-Private Partnership (PPP} program.

With Aquino’s PPP program, $1.1-billion worth of dam and water projects
have been geared to be auctioned off for investment to local and foreign private
companies. Big-ticket dam projects funded through the national budget have been
designed primarily for power generation purposes and only secondarily for
irrigation services.

Since 2009, the government has entered into the Participatory Irrigation
Development Project (PIDP), a World Bank (WB)-assisted project that aims to
transform the NIA into a strategically-focused and financially viable irrigation
service through restructuring and reform programs in the irrigation sector that will


include purportedly the rehabilitation and modernization of the NIS and the
rationalization of the NIA.

It is the farmers however who are expected to shoulder the payment of such
loans through cost-recovery arrangements under the PDIP. This is on top of the
already high ISFs collected by the NIA from farmer-beneficiaries who avail of
irrigation services.

In the 16 Congress, Anakpawis Representative Fernando Hicap, together
with the other representatives of the Makabayan coalition, and in close
coordination with farmers organizations, irrigators associations and stakeholders in
the agriculture sector, filed this bill seeking the abolition of irrigation service fees
collected by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) and the institutionalization
of a genuinely just program that will accelerate irrigation development nationwide.
‘The 16% Congress however failed to pass this bill into law.

The 2016 elections, apparently taking the cue from militant peasant
organizations, saw the particular issue of free irrigation conspicuously included
among the more articulated campaign promises of a considerable number of
candidates. President Rodrigo Duterte himself, during his appearance last February
in the Peasant Agenda Forum sponsored by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas
(KMP) at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, vowed to pursue rural
development through various measures including the implementation of free
irrigation service for the benefit of the farming sector.

Indeed, the Filipino farmers, are both serious and hopeful in challenging the
present administration to make good on its promise to unburden the sector of
irrigation fees and to impiement with strong political will a host of other reforms
that will usher in genuine rural development.

In view of the foregoing, the immediate passage of this bill is earnestly
sought.


REP. ARIEL B. CASILAO
ANAKPAWIS Party-list

a ee pm
wean De? ARATE REP. EMMI A. DE JESUS

BAYAN MUNA Party-list GABRIELA Women’s Party
REP. mB ‘TINIO RE} Liber BROSAS
ACT Teachers Party GABRIELA Women’s Party

REP. JANE I. ELAGO
\TAAN Party-list



Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

‘SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

* 558
HOUSE BILL NO.

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES
ARIEL B. CASILAO
CARLOS ISAGANI T. ZARATE, EMMI A. DE JESUS, ANTONIO L. TINIO,
ARLENE D. BROSAS, FRANCE L. CASTRO, AND SARAH JANE I. ELAGO

AN ACT
ABOLISHING IRRIGATION SERVICE FEES AND SUCH OTHER SIMILAR OR
RELATED FEES FROM BENEFICIARIES OF IRRIGATION SYSTEMS FUNDED
AND CONSTRUCTED BY, OR UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE
NATIONAL IRRIGATION ADMINISTRATION, AMENDING FOR THE PURPOSE
CERTAIN SECTIONS OF REPUBLIC ACT NO. 3601, PRESIDENTIAL DECREE
NO. 552 AND PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 1702

Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippines in
Congress assembled:

Section 1. Short Title. - “This Act shall be known as the “Free Irrigation Services
Act of 2016.”

Section. 2. Declaration of Policy. - It is hereby declared the policy and obligation
of the State to adhere to the principle of integrated and holistic program of support
services that will alleviate the situation of farmers and nurture them to unleash
their full capabilities as productive forces of society.

‘The State adheres to promote comprehensive rural development through increased
agricultural production and the adoption of necessary and sound measures to
accelerate the achievement of self-sufficiency in food, equitable access to
opportunities and sustained productivity as key strategies to raise the quality of life
in rural areas and overall national development.

Toward this objective, it shall endeavor to provide the necessary and vital support
services and assistance to farmers, including but not limited to inputs to
production, production support, post-harvest facilities and irrigation services.

Section. 3. Stoppage of the Collection of Fees. - The collection of irrigation
service fees (ISFs) and such other similar or related fees from beneficiaries of
irrigation systems funded and constructed by, or under the administration of the


National Administration (NIA), including the collection of back accounts and the
corresponding penalties thereof, shall all be stopped upon the passage of this Act.

Section. 4. Cancellation of Back Accounts and Penalties. - Back accounts and
corresponding penalties shall be immediately cancelled upon the passage of this
Act.

Section. 5. Construction, Repair and Maintenance of National Irrigation
‘Systems. - For the purpose of ensuring the necessary construction, repair and
maintenance of irrigation systems administered by the NIA, the required amounts
shall be included in the annual General Appropriations Act (GAA).

Section. 6. Government Subsidy for the Management of Irrigation Systems. -
The State shall provide the necessary subsidies to farmers and irrigators
associations and cooperatives to ensure the effective and grassroots-based
management of irrigation systems, the funding of which shall likewise be included
in the annual GAA

Section 7. Repeal of Section 2, Paragraph (c) of Republic Act No. 3601
entitled "An Act Creating the National Irrigation Administration:

Section 2. Powers and objectives. The NIA shall have the following powers
and objectives:

XEEXK

(©) To collect from the users of each irrigation system constructed by it
such fees as may be necessary to finance the continuous operation of
the system and reimburse within a certain period not less than
twenty-five years the cost of construction thereof:

KERX

SECTION 8. Repeal of Section 1, Paragraph (p) of Presidential Decree (PD) No.
552 entitled "Amending Certain Sections of Republic Act Numbered Thirty-
Six Hundred and One, entitled, "An Act Creating the National Irrigation
Administration”:

Section 1. Section 2, Republic Act Numbered Thirty-Six Hundred and one, is
hereby amended to read as follows:

"Section 2. Powers and Objectives. -- The NIA shall have the following powers
and objectives:

KAKK

(b) To charge and collect from the beneficiaries of the water from all
irrigation systems constructed by or under its administration, such
fees or administration charges as may be necessary to cover the cost
of operation, maintenance and insurance, and to recover the cost of
construction within a reasonable period of time to the extent


consistent with government policy; to recover funds or portions
thereof expended for the construction and/or rehabilitation of
communal irrigation systems which funds shall accrue to a special
fund for irrigation development under section 2 hereof;

Unpaid irrigation fees or administration charges shall be preferred
liens, first, upon the land benefited, and then on the crops raised
thereon, which liens shall have preference over all other liens except
for taxes on the land, and such preferred liens shall not be removed
until all fees or administration charges are paid or the property is
levied upon and sold by the National Irrigation Administration for the
satisfaction thereof. Judicial actions for the collection of unpaid
irrigation fees or charges, drainage fees or other charges which the
National Irrigation Administration is authorized to impose and
collect, shall henceforth be governed by the provisions of the Rules of
Court of the Philippines for similar actions, the provisions of other
laws to the contrary notwithstanding,

REX

Section 9. Repeal of Section 1, Paragraph (b) of Presidential Decree No. 1702
entitled, "Amending Section 3 of Republic Act No. 3601, As Amended by
Presidential Decree No. 552:

"Section 3 of Republic Act No. 3601, as amended by Section 3, Presidential
Decree No. 552, is hereby amended to read as follows:

XXX

(b) Operating Capital. — All amounts collected by the National Irrigation
Administration as irrigation fees, administration charges, drainage
fees, equipment rentals, proceeds from the sale of unserviceable
equipment and materials, sale of all reparation goods allocated to the
defunct Irrigation Service Unit and the National Irrigation
Administration, and all other income shall be added to its operating
capital.

‘The National Irrigation Administration is hereby authorized to impose
as an administration and engineering overhead charge, 5% of the
total cost of projects undertaken by it, which shall likewise form part
of its operating capital.

EXEX

Section 10. Separability Clause. ~ If any provision or part hereof, is held invalid
or unconstitutional, the remainder of the law or the provision thereof shall remain
valid and subsisting.

Section 11, Repealing Clause. - Any law, presidential decree, issuance, executive
order, letter of instruction, administrative order, rule or regulation contrary to or


inconsistent with, the provisions of this Act or may be construed either expressly or
impliedly, to grant the National Irrigation Administration the power to levy any kind
of irrigation fee or any kind of monetary imposition is hereby repealed, modified, or
amended accordingly.

Section 12. Effectivity. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its
publication in the Official Gazette.

Approved.