The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) on Tuesday asked lawmakers from the House of Representatives to increase the agency’s funding for next year, noting that budget cuts under the 2027 National Expenditure Program (NEP) may hinder the implementation of proposed irrigation projects.
During the House committee on appropriations’ briefing on the budget proposal of NIA, NIA Administrator Engr. Eduardo Guillen said the agency proposed funding by program expenditure classification worth P232,778,193,000, which is significantly less than the P46,355,900,000 allocated for the agency under the NEP.
Guillen noted that his agency’s proposal for next year is a 268-percent increase from its 2026 budget of P63,246,735,000.
‘The reduction is mainly attributed to the significantly lower allocation for capital outlay, which comprises the bulk of NIA’s irrigation investment requirements,’ Guillen said.
Guillen also cited significant budget cuts in improvement of service roads in national and communal irrigation systems. The NIA proposed P17,705,462,000 and P2,389,865,000 fundings for national and communal irrigation systems, respectively, but he said that only P250,000,000 were allotted for each project.
He added that the agency proposed the budgets for the repair of the following: national irrigation systems (P38,261,911,000); communal irrigation systems (P20,515,660,000); and pump irrigation systems (P10,415,188,000) while he said that these projects were allotted P2,021,555,000, P920,000,000, and P3,000,000,000 under the NEP, respectively.
Meanwhile, restoration of national and communal irrigation systems had a proposal of P7,260,567,000 and P13,245,386,000, respectively while they were allotted P1,000,000,000, and P250,000,000 under the NEP, respectively.
The administration also said that the new national irrigation and small reservoir irrigation projects were allotted by the agency of P34,939,697,000 and P11,083,425,000, respectively while they were allocated of P7,561,321,000 and P4,579,000,000, respectively under the NEP.
Guillen shared that as of December 31, 2025, only 2.20 million hectares have been developed out of the country’s total potential irrigable area of 3.13 million hectares.