PIKIT, Cotabato (22 Jan) -- Farm yields have tripled since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Japanese deputy chief of mission Akeo Egawa inaugurated the newly-completed the 4.8-billion yen Malitubog-Maridagao Irrigation Project, also known as Mal-Mar Irrigation Project in Gucotan, Pikit, Cotabato and Kilangan in Pagalungan, Maguindanao on November 19, 2003.

The inauguration was witnessed by Agriculture Secretary Luiz Lorenzo, National Irrigation Administration (NIA) chief Jesus Emmanuel Paras, ODA sec. Marita Jimenez, US Ambassador to the Philippines Francis Ricciardone, Admiral Thomas Fargo, top military officials and top provincial officials from Cotabato and Maguindanao.

The project, which the President dubbed as "a showcase for peace and development in Central Mindanao," is designed to 10,840 hectares of farmland, approximately half the size of the entire Camiguin Island or the entire Batanes Island, in the towns of Pikit, and Carmen, Cotabato and Pagalungan and Pagagawan towns in Maguindanao. It is expected to increase the income and quality of life of some 4,549 farmers-families and increase the rice production and food sufficiency in the area.

Financed by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), the project has substantially completed key irrigation facilities under stage I, which include a diversion dam, dikes, irrigation and drainage canals, canal structures, farm-to-market roads, bridge and siphon, and other relevant structures.

The diversion dam was inaugurated in September 2001 by President Arroyo in Carmen, North Cotabato. The newly-completed bridge and siphon component connects the irrigation project across the Maridagao River from Pagalungan in Maguindanao to the barren farmlands in Pikit, North Cotabato.

Since the project was launched in 1990, it has suffered major setbacks, including an indefinite postponement in l995 due to security concerns at the project site. When it resumed in 1998, the project continued to be severely affected by the fighting between the military and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in other parts of Mindanao.

In spite of difficulties, the irrigation project has tripled agricultural productivity and generated employment opportunities to the people in Cotabato and Maguindanao converting about 200 former Muslim rebels, belonging to the Moro National Liberation Front to rice farmers after the completion of the diversion dam.

NIA administrator Jesus Emmanuel Paras said the project was the commitment of President Arroyo in her State of the Nation Address in 2001. He reiterated that the NIA worked hard after the President threatened to turn over the project to the Army's Engineering Brigade if it would not be able to irrigate at least 3,000 hectares by September 2001.