Five Ilocos NIA execs deny multi-million graft charges

By Jaime Aquino

URDANETA CITY, Pangasinan -- Criminal charges of graft and corruption will be filed against five officials of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) in Region 1 (Ilocos Region) for allegedly accumulating millions in kickbacks from implementation of various infrastructure irrigation projects, according to the nongovernment Citizens Movement Against Corruption, Crime, Illegal Drugs and Gambling Inc.
    Prof. Salvador Singson-de Guzman identified two of the five officials as Angelito Miguel, NIA regional director, and Gaudencio de Vera, division manager of the Pangasinan Irrigation Management Office.
Following this, Miguel and de Vera cited contents of their joint letter they had submitted to NIA Administrator Ricardo Visaya, dismissing allegations of wrongdoing.
    "We are not accumulating millions of pesos in kickbacks in the implementation of various irrigation projects within our jurisdiction and we believe the information used by de Guzman's group has no leg to stand on in filing criminal and administrative charges against us" de Vera and Miguel told reporters.
    De Guzman did not name the three other officials, saying his group is still gathering evidence on their alleged involvement in bribe-taking.
    He added they will also file administrative cases for grave abuse of authority, grave misconduct, dishonesty and oppression against Miguel, de Vera and the three other officials before the Office of the Ombudsman for Luzon next week.
    "Right now, I cannot reveal the names of the three other officials because they have strong connections with NIA Administrator Ricardo Visaya and our group decided to bring this matter to the office of Greco Belgica, chairman of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission, at siya na ang bahala na magsampa ng kaso laban sa kanila (and he will be the one to file charges against them)," de Guzman told reporters.
    On July 10, the citizens movement passed a resolution that recommended to President Rodrigo Duterte the immediate removal or transfer and investigation of Miguel for alleged corruption, citing the awarding of infrastructure projects to his allegedly favorite contractors and for his alleged inefficiency in addressing the water supply problem of farmers in Pangasinan.
    De Guzman said they had inspected the project sites in the provinces of Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur and La Union and learned that the contractors were "dummies" of Miguel.
    His group also recommended to the President to order a probe into an allegedly overpriced P57-million project in Bugallon town under the supervision of Pangasinan Irrigation Management Office that had been scheduled to be completed this year and also the allegedly overpriced P342-million dam project in Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte.
    It claimed that the group's investigation found that Miguel allegedly earned millions in kickbacks from the newly completed Barbar Small Reservoir Irrigation Project (Barbar SRIP) in Barangay Barbar, San Juan, Ilocos Sur and the P150-million small dam project in Barangay Binday, San Fabian, Pangasinan.
    Thousands of farmers recently scored the allegedly poor services of the irrigation administration, pointing to the agency's failure to provide water for rice lands in several towns of Pangasinan and La Union.
    The farmers from the towns of Villasis, Mapandan, Asingan, Santa Maria, Manaoag, Santa Barbara, Malasiqui, Laoac, Pozorrubio and Calasiao and Urdaneta City and other parts of Pangasinan complained they had no water supply since May, affecting the planting of their first crop of palay (unmilled rice).
    "Engineer Miguel should be blamed for these ineffective and poor services of the NIA because he is not doing his job very well and he has no heart to feel the problem of the farmers who are only defending on farming to feed their families" de Guzman's group said.
    On July 23, 2021, this writer accompanied by four other newsmen from Pangasinan went to the NIA regional office to get a reaction from Miguel, de Vera and other officials.
    The NIA chief denied his participation in the awarding of projects but admitted the projects were implemented under his supervision.
    De Vera said they did not collect a single centavo from the contractors because their job is only to supervise the implementation and completion of the projects.
    Miguel said the bidding and awarding of infrastructure projects worth P30 million was under his supervision but that of projects worth more than P30 million and above are under the supervision of the NIA administrator.
    "Kung may anomalya at nangyaring kurapsyon sa implementasyon ng mga proyektong iyan ay wala na kaming pakialam dahil hindi naman kami ang unang kausap ng mga kontratista bago umpisahan na gawin ang mga iyan kundi si Administrator Visaya (If there was anomaly and corruption in those projects, it is of no concern to us because we were not the ones whom the contractors talked to when the projects were started)," he said.
    According to Miguel, he is not afraid to be transferred or removed as NIA regional director if President Duterte ordered his ouster, saying, "Tutal hindi naman ako ang nakinabang sa ibinigay na porsyento ng mga kontratista at alam ng Diyos iyan (I did not earn anything from the contractors and God knows that)." He added he was not yet the NIA regional director when the bidding process for those big projects was conducted and allegedly awarded by Visaya to the contractors.
    He blamed the management of the San Roque Multi-Purpose Dam Project operating the San Roque Power Corp. for not releasing water supply to five irrigations systems - Agno, Sinucalan, Ambayoan, Dipalo and Lower Agno - to the rice lands of the farmers in Pangasinan.
    The five irrigation systems supply water coming from the San Roque Dam to more than 36,700 hectares of rice lands in the province, according to Cipriano Yabut, Agno-Sinocalan and San Fabian River irrigation systems chief.