My advocacy for Water Management, Conservation and Availability for human consumption goes way back to my childhood days in the mountain village of Nueva Vida, M’lang, Cotabato where every house had a tank to save rainwater because there was no water system.
For our household water needs, we had to hitch a sled to our carabao and fetched water using plastic containers from a spring in an area we called “Forestal” about 2 kilometers away from our home.
Kaming labing-isang magkakapatid na lalaki ay nakatoka kung sino ang mag-iigib at kapag naubusan kami ng tubig, siguradong hagupit ng tali ng kalabaw ang aabutin ng aming mga puwit.
Access to water then became an obsession for me and when I was a young reporter covering the Public Works beat for the Philippine News Agency, I personally asked the late Minister Aber Canlas to provide my village with a water system.
He granted my request and the Nueva Vida Level II Water System was the first ever in my hometown and it still works until today.
I did not let go of this advocacy for Access to Water so that when I became Mayor of M’lang, it was one of the focus of my simplified governance represented by five letters, W-L-R-L-P, or Water, Light, Roads, Livelihood and Peace.
The Level II Water Systems which I established in the different barangays of M’lang are still working until today funded by a Presidential Grant of only P1.2-M from then President Fidel V. Ramos.
When I was elected Governor, the provincial government acquired a modern truck-mounted Ingersoll-Rand drilling machine which drilled up to a depth of about 600 feet.
Villagers were shocked at how in just one day, their age-old dream of a source of safe drinking water, came true and they cried as water gushed out from the drilling pipes.
The advocacy continued as Secretary of Agriculture when, with the help of farmer-scientist Rocky French, I introduced the Solar-Powered Irrigation System.
When it was not given sufficient funds by the Economic Managers, I sought President Duterte’s approval in negotiating for a loan with Israel for the establishment of modern and compuerized Solar-Powered Irrigation Systems which would irrigate 500,000-hectares.
Israel, through then Ambassador Rafael Harpaz, approved in 2019 the grant of a P42-B concessional loan and an Israeli company, LR Group, built two prototypes of the fertigation systems in Lumban, Laguna now used by farmers there.
Until today, however, the loan proposal is still finding its way out of the labyrinthian bureacratic process of the NEDA ICC.
When I moved to the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), I designed another program, the MinDA Water Supply Program, where we partnered with the DILG, DBP and LGUs in constructing water systems funded through LGUs loans for agriculture and drinking.
The first model of the MinDA Water Supply Program is Taraka, Lanao del Sur where six Solar Irrigations and one Solar-Powered Water System are now nearing completion.
I engaged Israel again in conducting a 5-session on-line class for Mindanao’s Governors and Mayors on Water Conservation and Management using the Israel model.
If by the Grace of God, I would be given the chance to serve as Senator of the Republic, my Water Advocacy will be pursued through appropriate legislations.
We will start with Re-Greening the bald mountains and protecting the remaining forests while declaring watersheds as “No-Go” areas with stiff penalties and jail terms.
The mountains must be protected because that is where the waterflow starts, then we push for the passage of mothballed bills on Water Management and Conservation to establish mini-dams, catchments, levees, dikes and water impounding to conserve water.
When we are able to do that, our agriculture will flourish, the corals will be protected from siltation, floods will be mitigated and we will be able to see a Green Philippines.
This is a life-long advocacy.
It may not be realized in my lifetime but it surely will benefit the lives of the generations to come.
This is my brand of Governance: Vision and Consistency.
#GoodMountainGoodWaterGoodLife!
#letsmakephilippinesgreenagain!
#GovernanceIsCommonSense!
(First photo shows the Level II Water System of Nueva Vida which was built in 1982, my first water system project. The other photos show the Solar Powered irrigation Systems established when I was Agriculture Secretary and later Mindanao Development Authority Chairman.)
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