ILOILO CITY - The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) is hoping to start construction of the PHP20.7- billion Panay River Basin Integrated Development Project (PRBIDP) in Capiz in 2026, or even earlier, if they can secure savings in 2025. In an interview on Tuesday, NIA Administrator Eduardo Guillen said they would already start acquiring the right of way and the necessary permits next year. 'Rest assured, we will already start the project. We already have complete data,' Guillen said at the sidelines of the inauguration of the Jalaur River Multipurpose Project II in Calinog, Iloilo. He said they can bid the project through design and build, which is faster by an average of three years in terms of implementation. Guillen said if they could get a contractor with a Quadruple A accreditation capable of implementing the project, then it would be up for completion before President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.'s term ends in 2028. Once completed, the Panay River project is expected to address flooding in some 26,800 hectares in Capiz, generate hydroelectric power of 18.42 megawatts, and produce three cubic meters of water per second to nearby municipalities. The project will have a reservoir dam in Barangay Acuña and an afterbay dam in Barangay Garcia, all in Tapaz town, creating 13,950 hectares of potential new irrigable areas. It is expected to benefit 25,046 farmers and 9,378 indigenous people households. It will cover the city of Roxas, and the municipalities of Maayon, Panay, Panitan, Pontevedra, Cuartero, Dao, Dumalag, Jamindan, Mambusao, Sigma, and Tapaz, all in Capiz, and the neighboring towns of Bingawan, San Rafael, and Lemery in Iloilo. Guillen said the catchbasin of the Panay River Basin is huge, around 10 times that of the JRMP II dam so they are studying if the water from the river basin can augment the water at the JRMP II through a transbasin tunnel. In 2022, the Western Visayas Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council passed a resolution calling for the phase-by-phase implementatio n of the project as a long-term solution to address the flooding problem in Capiz. Source: Philippines News Agency