NIA chief holds off revamp

CABANATUAN CITY – The revamp of seven officials of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) in Luzon, which has been completed recently, has been put on hold by Administrator Proceso Domingo.

Domingo said he was holding in abeyance the revamp pending a new revamp to be implemented by newly installed Agriculture Secretary Domingo Panganiban.

The seven reshuffled officers who were ordered to re-assume their posts is led by Antonio Nangel, former operations manager of the Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation Systems (UPRIIS), the country’s largest irrigation system and operator of the mammoth Pantabangan Dam.

The others are Leodencio Baraquio, Vicente Galvez, Manuel Collado and Baltazar Usis, former regional irrigation managers (RIMs) of Regions 1,2,3 and 4, respectively; ex-Systems Management Department (SMD) manager Edilberto Payawal; and engineer Reynaldo Puno, ex-district chief of the Talavera, Nueva Ecija-based UPRIIS District 2.

Nangel has earlier been designated as OIC-RIM for Region 2 based in Cauayan, Isabela, replacing Galvez who was designated RIM for Region 1. Baraquio was designated as Galvez’s adviser. Nangel was replaced by Puno.

The earlier reshuffle saw Collado being re-assigned to the SMD, replacing Payawal who was assigned as RIM for the Pila, Laguna-based Region 4 office. Usis was assigned to Region 3 based in San Rafael, Bulacan, replacing Collado.

Domingo, who hails from this city, told The STAR that the re-assignment of personnel was not a punitive action nor due to loss of trust in their administrative and management capabilities as claimed by a RIM but was in conjunction with the NIA’s slogan Bagong NIA, Bagong Pag-asa, sa Ikauunlad ng Pagsasaka (New NIA, New Hope, for the Progress of Agriculture).

He explained that his administration, with the guidance of President Arroyo, is in the process of re-engineering the agency’s management system.

The aborted reshuffle was to be the last in a three-tiered reshuffle implemented by Domingo’s office following a reshuffle conducted early this year affecting seven regional offices in Visayas and Mindanao. – Manny Galvez