NIA warns Chinese firm:
Catch up or we’ll takeover
MULTI-MILLION BAGO
IRRIGATION REHAB WORK
BY CARLA GOMEZ

The National Irrigation Authority has given a Chinese firm that won a P773-million contract to repair the Bago River Irrigation System until May 15 to achieve zero work slippage or the NIA will take over its work, NIA project manager Samuel Japitana said yesterday.

China Waters and Electric Corp. by March 15  should also finish repair on laterals A, B and C  of  the BRIS in Murcia and Bago and part of the main canal to allow early rice  cropping, he said.

After which repairs will move to Valladolid and La Carlota, Japitana added.

Senator Mar Roxas Saturday said he is pushing for the creation of a comprehensive database on agrarian reform as a parallel effort to extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, which expires this year.

The proponents of CARP's extension must show a way forward that would result to better incomes and productivity in the countryside, Roxas said in a press statement from his office.

There must be an established and agreed upon database that would contain all the pertinent data on agrarian reform, he said.

The Negros CARP Reform Movement, an alliance of major coalitions of people’s organizations, non-governmental organizations and individual advocates in the island, have reiterated their call for the extension of the land reform program as they debunked the survey results released by the Negros Occidental provincial government showing that 97 percent of beneficiaries in the province have not received government support.

This survey was biased for they did not show their processes and survey documents, the group said in a position paper.

NCRM said they have  showcases that will prove there is economic improvement in the lives of  agrarian reform beneficiaries. These include those in Haciendas Nolan, Isabel, Velez-Malaga, Nelia, Carmenchika, Cambuktot, and Dama.