Cong Mangaoang defends bill creating Chico River Basin Development Authority

Tabuk City, Kalinga- Congressman Allen Jesse Mangaoang successfully defended House Bill 584, Creating the Chico River Basin Development Authority, before the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives in a virtual meeting on April 26.

According to Mangaoang, the establishment of Chico River Basin Development Authority would provide a much needed and focused management and intervention in the development, preservation, and sustainability of the Chico River line.

As provided in House Bill 584, the Authority will be created under the Office of the President with the mandate to coordinate all development activities in coordination with the appropriate government agencies/people’s organization within the Chico River Basin.

Section 5 of the Bill provides that the Authority ‘shall ensure an integrated approach to planning and management of resources utilization and development on a basin-wide scale, utilizing indigenous systems of environmental management with due regards to the rights of indigenous peoples/indigenous cultural communities over their ancestral lands and ancestral domains under the Indigenous Peoples Right Act of 1997 and its attendant Rules and Regulations as maybe appropriate.’

The territorial jurisdiction of the Authority covers all areas within the watershed of the Chico River from its headwaters to its end joining the Cagayan River including its tributaries in the province of Kalinga.

Mangaoang, in his discourse, pointed out the importance of the Chico River in sustaining the agricultural development in the region being one of the major river systems in Cordillera Administrative Region, irrigating more than 21,000 hectares of rice lands and producing an average of 25,000 tons of palay a year as of 2019 in the region and nearby provinces.

An Authority, he pointed out, is vital to oversee the problems concerning the River to include massive depletion, denudation and remarkable erosion of its upstream watersheds and along river line as a result of decreasing water discharges, siltation, river pollution and capital wastes from upstream populace.

Through an Authority, Mangaoang believes that a more coordinated and holistic measures could be done to solve such problems, considering that as observed, projects implemented locally are not sustained and at times uncoordinated affecting the program goals. With a central agency planning and coordinating the programs, would ensure the participation of all stake holders, government and non-government groups and individuals, he underscored.

The Authority shall have a General Manager who will be appointed by the President and Board of Directors whose members shall elect among them a Chairperson to serve for a period of three years and the board shall be supported by a fully-staffed management office.

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