by Danny O. Calleja
Business Mirror, September 1, 2009
LIBMANAN, Camarines Sur — Malacañang has set aside P500 million for the resettlement of about 300 families from seven barangays in two Camarines Sur towns that would be exposed to floods once the P1.9-million modern irrigation system now undergoing construction here is completed and made operational.
An amount would come from the 2009 special fund of the Office of the President and the National Housing Authority (NHA), according to Assistant Secretary Tomasito Monzon, the presidential assistant for Bicol and concurrent head of the Project Management Office (PMO) of the Bicol River Basin and Watershed Management Project (BRBWMP).
The families to be resettled presently dwell along river banks and other areas at risk of being affected by floods that could be caused by higher water level once the giant Libmanan-Cabusao Dam Project (LCDP) is put into operation, Monzon said.
Construction of the dam, worth some P713 million and considered the biggest in the region, is being undertaken by the BRBWMP. Monzon said the relocation would ensure the safety of these families. The LCDP is part of the P1.9-billion project under the irrigation modernization component of the BRBWMP, Monzon said.
William Ragodon, Bicol regional chief of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), described LCDP as an 11.3-meter-tall and 150-meter-wide structure. It will be Bicol’s biggest dam that will irrigate some 4,000 hectares of rice lands in Libmanan and Cabusao towns, benefitting over 3,000 farmers and their families.
Aside from the construction of the dam, the project includes the construction of a 10.20-km main canal that will convey the water from the dam to the existing irrigation line of the Libmanan-Cabusao Pump Irrigation System (LCPIS), Ragodon said.
A 10.75-km service road, the construction of new and rehabilitation of existing irrigation-drainage structures and facilities of the LCPIS will also be provided under the whole package of the project, Ragodon said.
Monzon said the decision to relocate the families was reached following a series of consultations on the disaster risk-prevention options to address the expected rise in the water level of the Sipocot River during heavy rains with the dam in place.
The decision to relocate was approved by the members of the BRBWMP interagency group composed of the mayors of Lupi, Sipocot, Libmanan and Cabusao, the four towns in District 1 of Camarines Sur covered by the LCDP.
Under the dam’s feasibility study prepared by the NIA, five barangays in Lupi and two in Sipocot would be affected by the expected rise in the water level of the Sipocot River as a result of the backwater that will be created by the dam’s operation. These barangays are Malaguico and Manangle in Sipocot town; Lupi Nuevo; Lupi Viejo; San Pedro; San Isidro; and Barrera Jr. in Lupi town.
Lupi Vice Mayor Angeles Montanez Jr. said the Lupi local government is not opposed to the relocation of the affected residents in its five villages, provided they are given a good relocation site, just compensation for the costs of their houses, lands, crops and other encumbrances from being relocated.
Sipocot Mayor Theresa de la Peña said her administration won’t resist the relocation plan, as she believed it would be for the benefit of her constituents in the affected area.
Mayors Totoy Genova and Rodolfo Jimenez Sr. of Cabusao and this town, respectively, have offered lots in their areas as resettlement sites once no suitable place is identified in Lupi and Sipocot.
The two municipalities that are both major rice-producing towns of Camarines Sur are the direct beneficiaries of the irrigation project.
Monzon said the relocation measure is indeed a “blessing in disguise” for the affected residents as, with or without the dam project, they are already living in danger in their present communities that usually submerged under floodwaters during heavy rains and typhoons.
A study of the technical working group on the project said relocating the residents is less costly, as it would only entail some P500 million in contrast to the estimated cost of P5.6 billion needed to put up a water-diversion channel or protection dike, based on the estimation made by the Department of Public Works and Highways.
Relocation is also deemed timely, as it would only take less than two years to implement, roughly the same period as the completion schedule of the dam, as against the duration of constructing a diversion channel or protection dike, either of which will take a long time to implement, aside from the fact that there is no definite source of funds to undertake the project, Monzon said.
He said he had already ordered the five action teams that compose that BRBWMP Resettlement Committee to speed up their assigned tasks to carry out the relocation processes, such as site-development planning, appraisal and validation, community development activities, socioeconomic surveys and actual site development.
Following the approval of the relocation option, Monzon said, the BRBWMP-PMO and its implementing agencies will soon start the consultation and dialogue with members of the municipal and barangay councils, particularly the affected residents.
“We want to know their sentiments and needs as far as their relocation is concerned. We also want to assure them that we will address all their important concerns and that their overall welfare will be addressed,” he added.
