PRESIDENT Arroyo has authorized the phased implementation of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) rationalization plan over a five-year period instead of a one-time execution, to ensure the proper maintenance and management of rehabilitated irrigation systems across the country once the agency hands them over to irrigators’ groups.

In issuing Executive Order (EO) 718, dated April 8, 2008, the President cited the need to “develop and empower” irrigators’ associations (IAs) before they take over irrigation facilities, and to restore the latter to “good condition” prior to their turn over.

“The NIA Rationalization Plan shall be implemented in phases for a period of five years to commence upon approval of the NIA Rationalization Plan, in lieu of the one-time implementation authorized under EO 366,” President Arroyo ordered in EO 718.

The President said the World Bank will fund the Participatory Irrigation Development Program (PIDP) to reinforce and complement locally funded programs “to achieve a holistic development of the public irrigation sector.”

“The PIDP and the complementary locally funded programs will enable the synchronization of the implementation of the NIA Rationalization Program with the transfer of the management, operation and maintenance responsibilities to the IAs, within a period of five years,” she said.

In compliance with EO 366 providing for the rationalization of the Executive branch, the NIA crafted its own rationalization plan based on the provisions of Republic Act 3601, the Agricultural Fisheries and Modernization Act (Afma), and the Magna Carta for Small Farmers.

The laws mandate the NIA to turn over in whole or in part national irrigation systems to IAs, which are the duly organized beneficiaries.

But the President noted that “IAs have to be developed and empowered to take over the operation, repair and maintenance of irrigation facilities; and the irrigation canals and facilities to good condition before the turnover of the  management, operation and maintenance can take place.”

She said  the NIA’s rationalization plan requires a phased implementation “to ensure the progressive buildup of NIA’s infrastructure and organizational capability to sustain irrigation management consistent with...modern realities.”

To ensure the smooth transition from the existing to the rationalized structure, EO 718 also provides that the NIA shall prepare a transition plan part of its rationalization plan.

The transition plan will include the targeted number of irrigation systems to be rehabilitated and transferred yearly to the IAs during the five-year period and the corresponding number of NIA affected personnel, whose positions shall be declared co-terminus with PIDP or after five years, whichever comes first.

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AFTER putting up retail outlets in poor areas for cheap rice, the government will also be opening today stores for low-priced bread products in select impoverished communities.

PRESIDENT Arroyo has authorized the phased implementation of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) rationalization plan over a five-year period instead of a one-time execution, to ensure the proper maintenance and management of rehabilitated irrigation systems across the country once the agency hands them over to irrigators’ groups.

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