Irrigator Peter: Your Water Boy

Posting for the record that a week after I resigned from NIA, the NBI nabbed one of those using my name (and that of DOTR Sec Tugade) to ask money from contractors.

Paalam!
I have been vilified in the past; my name used, abused and maligned. Recently, there had been efforts to discredit me again. There are rumors circulating that I have asked money from NIA contractors. These are not true!
To spare the President from these embarrassing stories, particularly in these times of intensified attacks on him, I have quietly left government. I have neither personal vested interest in it nor ill intent towards NIA and the whole government, which we are trying to reform.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve the government, especially to President Duterte, whose trust I have never betrayed.
I have proven in the past that one need not be in government to do public service or work for the common good. I will likely continue to do so in media, civil society and the business sector where I have been involved before.
May the Lord continue to light our paths. God bless us all.
This is your water boy, signing off!

Your water boy "At your service!" airing on PTV4

Early start for budget preparations initiated by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez for Agriculture, Agrarian Reform and NIA to attain rice self sufficiency and ensure food security. With Sec Manny Piñol, Sec Paeng Mariano, Cong Art Yap and DBM USec Ted de Leon.

International partnerships - Meetings February 17 with the World Bank on our Participatory Irrigation Development Program; with the Korean Economic Cooperation and Development Fund and Eximbank on Retrofitting Irrigation Systems for Climate Resilience; and with China's CAMCE Engineering on forthcoming China-funded Irrigation Projects.

Thank you for the successful trip through three Regions in Mindanao in three days. We made stops in Misamis Oriental, Cagayan de Oro and Bukidnon in Region X; North Cotabato and Maguindanao in Region XII; and Davao del Sur and Davao City in Region XI. We met with Irrigator Associations, LGU and media partners and our NIA managers and staff. We visited irrigation systems and inspected projects and typhoon damaged facilities. All these with one aim - help fulfill the country's quest to attain rice-self sufficiency under .

Lavina orders NIA to monitor California dam disaster

Cagayan de Oro City - The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) is closely monitoring the potential disaster in California following the damage to the spillway in the Oroville dam, 120 kilometers north of the State capital Sacramento.

Administrator Peter Lavina said the NIA Engineering and Operations Department has been instructed to follow the news on the dam to learn lessons how California engineers address the problem.

High level of water caused by heavy rains has been blamed for the problem with the Oroville dam’s spillway.

As much as 200,000 persons have been forced to evacuate in a State of Emergency following the noticed hole in the spillway of the dam, unleashing a wall of water threatening communities downstream.

Lavina recalled that only last January 11, he ordered NIA to undertake a thorough inspection of its dams and other irrigation infrastructures to check on their structural integrity and safety following earthquakes and typhoons.

He said he called on the inspection nationwide to ensure the safety of the irrigation systems and communities near and around NIA facilities.

Lavina is in Cagayan de Oro to visit NIA projects in Region X including those in Misaims Oriental and Bukidnon, which recently suffered from heavy flooding.

He also called on NIA projects to be disaster-resilient to prevent the recurrent restoration, repair and rehabilitation of damages to irrigation facilities by natural disasters.

- Inauguration of two projects in Roxas, Palawan - pump irrigation to benefit DAR's agrarian reform communities and lined canal to benefit three barangays

Six irrigation projects were presented for potential Chinese funding during the first visit of to China last October worth P42B.
Last week in China, the economic team lead by Sec Carlos G Dominguez included another project worth P2.6B.
In the coming days, the Philippines and Korea will meet for its Country Program Mission where NIA has submitted to NEDA another six projects.
With only 57% of our 3.02 million hectares of irrigable lands so far with irrigation, we need to undertake more projects to help attain rice self-sufficiency and food security. We likewise need to open more service areas as rapid urbanization is eating into our rice fields for housing and other uses.
Our target during the term of the president is to reach the 70% level or an addition of about 360,000 hectares.
Can we achieve this? Yes, we can because the president has shown us leadership, political will and dedication to serve the common good!

Day 1 of this new Page:
My sked today Feb 3 - Flying to Davao to visit irrigation projects in North Cotabato and attend the launching of Agri Sec Manny Piñol's solar-powered irrigation project in Mlang.
Tomorrow I will visit Montevista in Compostela Valley, Bislig, Tago and Tandag in Surigao del Sur.
On Sunday, I will be in San Francisco and Bayugan in Agusan del Sur and Cabadbaran and Butuan in Agusan del Norte.