Lomibao’s motto: ‘Work,work work’

MALASIQUI, Pangasinan — When retired Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Arturo Lomibao formally assumes his position as the new administrator of National Irrigation Administration (NIA) tomorrow, he said his first order of the day is "Work, work, work!"

Lomibao was appointed by President Arroyo last week to head the agency, replacing Baltazar Usis as NIA administrator.

Lomibao said he wanted to instill discipline and efficiency among the 10,000 NIA employees.

Aside from Lomibao, retired police generals Leandro Mendoza and Hermogenes Ebdane were earlier appointed by Mrs. Arroyo as secretaries of the Departments of Transportation and Communication and Public Works and Highways, respectively.

Lomibao said he considers it a challenge to head NIA. "Maybe technically we are not as competent as those who have training or background but in management and leadership, we can compete with any of these technical people or technocrats," he said.

He said managing the police force and the NIA "is similar in the sense that you are managing people, managing resources and giving public service."

"If you have the heart and the compassion to lead people or to serve the public, then I think that is the thing that we have to consider because no amount of technical expertise, no amount of managerial skills will bear you out if you do not have the dedication and the heart to serve our people," he added.

Lomibao disclosed that only 45 percent, or 1.4 million hectares out of three million hectares of irrigable lands nationwide are actually irrigated. He said the government will need at least P320 billion to construct new irrigation systems as a new irrigation facility costs P150,000 to P200,000 per hectare.

Of the 1.4 million hectares with irrigation systems, 30 percent need repair and the cost of the rehabilitation is about P50 million.