Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 3) – Construction of the mothballed ₱13-billion Balog-Balog dam and irrigation project in Tarlac will resume under a new builder with a bidding set later this year, the head of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) said on Thursday.
NIA Administrator Eddie Guillen, an engineer and former Piddig Town Mayor in Ilocos Norte before his appointment as irrigation chief in late 2022, said the agency was awaiting the National Economic and Development Authority’s (NEDA) approval of the the multibillion-peso project’s “revised program of work.”
“Itong Balog-Balog dam pagkaupo ko po nung December, nagpasa sa NEDA revised program of work. Ipapabid na ito sa last quarter ng taon. May natitirang pera dun. Gusto naming tapusin ang Balog-Balog para tulungan ang mga farmers sa Tarlac,” he said.
[Translation: When I took the post last December, we submitted a revised program of work for the dam. The rest of the project will then be put out for bidding in the last quarter of the year. There are some leftover funds there. We want to finish the dam to help Tarlac farmers.]
Construction work on Balog-Balog first began during the Aquino administration. The NIA terminated the contract at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic after it found out that the builders did not fulfill the terms of the agreement, Guillen said.
He named the contractors as a joint venture between ITP and Guangzhi. CNN Philippines could not get the side of the original proponents as of press time.
Guillen, who inherited the headache arising from the unfinished project, said he reviewed the contract and submitted to NEDA a fresh proposal to see the completion of the last component of Balog-Balog – the construction of a high dam.
About 90% of the irrigation facilities have already been built in the property in Tarlac, he said.
Of the ₱13-billion budget, ₱6 billion os unspent while ₱7 billion was used to build the irrigation component of Balog-Balog which provides water to 20,000 hectares of farmland, Guillen added.
