The Bohol provincial government is firm in its stand to help the Boholano
people especially with its launcing of the cash-for-work program, which
aims to provide alternative livelihood for people who lost their jobs due to
the impact of the Covid pandemic, and farmers.
The Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) led in the launching
program held last Wednesday, May 6, 2020.
On the same day, Gov. Arthur Yap, visited the beneficiary barangays:
Jimilian and Gotozon in Loboc town, and barangays Yanaya and Bugang
Sur in Bilar, barangay Guadalupe in Carmen, barangay Bugsoc in Sierra
Bullones, and beneficiaries in Batuan, who gathered at the town’s
compound.
Among the program’s beneficiaries are farmers who belong to 38 irrigators’
associations located in 29 towns. The 29 towns included in the program are
Alicia, Antequerra, Anda, Balilihan, Batuan, Bilar, Buenavista, Candijay,
Sierra Bullomes, Talibon, Trinidad, Valencia, Carmen, Dimiao, Duero,
Garcia Hernandez, Guindulman, Getafe, Inabanga, Jagna, Lila, Loboc,
Maribojoc, Mabini, Pilar, Sagbayan, San Isodro and San Miguel.
The program Intends to employ around 500 workers with each worker
granted the will work for 10 days, according to a Capitol report.
In the other hand, the OPA said the program may benefit not more than
3,500 people.
The second batch of workers will start work on May 18. The workers in the
second batch will come from the towns of Albur, Tubigon, Loay, Ubay,
Clarin, Guindulman, and Duero.
The program aims to include 50 communal irrigators system (CIS). The
province has earmarked P 2 million from the calamity fund of 2019, through
the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council
(PDRRMC).
Priority beneficiaries under the program are the workers who lost their
respective jobs due to the pandemic. Economic activity was stopped as a
result of the effort to stop the spread of the virus.
The beneficiaries are the ones that will do the clearing and grubbing, along
irrigation canals, restoration of canal embankment, back-filling, and shaping
up of canal section, brushing of main and lateral canals, and desolation or
removing of silt from canal waterways.
One CIS covers 400 meters of irrigation canals and each round of work will
be completed in 10 days where each worker, ideally, receiving P400 per
day.
For members of irrigators’ associations, they will divide the P40,000
allocation per site. The cash-for-work program for the provincewide CIS will
be implemented in 100 days, it is intended to rehabilitate existing irrigation
systems, canals, and channels of dams in the province OPA officer-in-
charge Dr. Larry Pamugas said.
Moreover, the program aims to help farmers prepare the irrigation facilities
for the coming wet cropping season in 2020, Pamugas added.
Also, the program is designed to help displaced workers due to the health
crisis. It will also address the siltation problem in irrigation canals and
channels, provide cash for families who will help in the rehabilitation of
irrigation systems, and improve the carrying capacity of the irrigation canals
and channels through the removal of blockage.
Agriculture efficiency is at its best when irrigation facilities are working
properly, Pamugas bared.
The families living near the CIS are given priority to join the program,
information from the Capitol said.