Lifetime Benefit! Water Impounding Built 29 Years Ago Still Works

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” – Lao Tzu.
Yesterday, I felt an indescribable joy when an old farmer in Pulanglupa, Mlang, Cotabato, where I served as Mayor from 1995 to 1998, proudly showed me a Water Impounding built during my short stint as Mayor which serves as fishpond and source of water for his rice farm.
“You built this water impounding when you were Mayor in 1995,” farmer Ramon Sorianosos told me when I dropped by his farm in Pulanglupa yesterday after I inspected a non-operational Solar Powered Irrigation System nearby.
Twenty-nine years ago, Ramon, who campaigned hard for me when I ran for Mayor of my hometown in 1995 against our Mayor for 27 years, asked that I take a look at the conditions of the Barangays which were without roads, electricity and water.
When I won, I crafted the five letters of development – W-L-R-L-P – which stood for Water, Light, Roads, Livelihood and Peace.
Using an old bulldozer of the town which I inherited, I embarked on the opening of farm to market roads in the whole town, connected almost all of the villages to the power lines and established water systems for potable water.
When farmers saw the bulldozer operating in their areas, they asked if they could use it in building levees and dikes in creeks and small rivers which would dry out during the summer months to impound the water.
The Small Water impounding Projects (SWIP) thus became one of the priority projects which I implemented in my short stint as Mayor of my hometown.
(In 1998, I was elected Governor of North Cotabato, a position which I served for nine years.)
All in all, over 50 SWIPs were built in the different villages of the town to serve as source of water for the farms during the dry season and fish pond, as well.
Yesterday, when Ramon proudly showed me the SWIP which was built 29 years ago, including one more also built nearby owned by his brother, I felt vindicated that I pursued the path of governance which provided people with projects to improve their lives instead of projects like basketball courts and dole outs which included rice and sardines, umbrellas and caps.
In all of the years I was Mayor and Governor, I emphasized that while I fully supported sports, the construction of roads, small bridges and water impounding should have priority over basketball courts and gymnasiums.
The distribution of dole-outs was something that I really detested because I believed then, as I still do now, that it breeds mendicancy and reliance on government freebies.
Had I given Ramon one sack of rice in 1995 instead of building a Small Water Impounding in his farm, I really doubt if he would even remember that 29 years later.
Ramon Sorianosos’ story should be a concrete proof that projects which boost the productivity of our people has a lasting effect on the improvement of their lives instead of cash or rice dole-outs.
I rest my case!

#GovernanceIsCommonSense!