BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya (5 October) -– The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) regional office in Cauayan City in Isabela will resume the filing of cases in court against erring farmers who continue to ignore the payment of their back accounts covering their Irrigation Service Fees (ISFs), regional irrigation manager Vicente Galvez bared here recently.

Galvez said they have resumed their policy to file the necessary charges against the farmers after their failure to settle their accounts under the agency’s extension of NIA’s Compromise Agreement Program (CAP), an incentive program designed to release the interest earned by their back accounts.

The program, Galvez added serves as an opportunity for the farmers to pay only the principal computed fees based on the prevailing cost of palay under the conditions that their current accounts are settled.

Through the CAP, NIA aims to collect the total amount of unpaid ISFs to generate funds for the agency’s operational cost.

“We are dismayed over the poor response of our farmers on our program. In fact, we have booked up hundreds of millions in pesos of ISF back accounts. So we have no alternative but to pursue this in court,” he said.

Galvez said the cases of delinquent farmers covered by their services areas such as the Abulog-Apayao, Dummum, Magapit and Baggao irrigation systems have been filed in a court in Allacapan-Lasam 2nd Judicial region in Cagayan.