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These
innovations are based on principles espoused
by the Chairman himself:
- LWUA
can also serve as conduit of low-interest
or interest-free loan and outright grant funds
coming from the national government and its
various instrumentalities
- All
water districts are viable if given a proper
mix of funding assistance and the appropriate
infrastructure development
- LWUA
and the water districts should also invest
in environmental preservation, especially
in the protection and maintenance of vital
life-supporting watersheds
Since
Chairman Pichay was appointed to the policy-making
body of LWUA, the agency has accomplished the
following in terms of infrastructure projects:
- Undertaken
257 of which 61 have been completed while
the remaining 196 are ongoing, to benefit
5.5 million of our provincial population.
- Of
the 61 completed projects, 11 are in waterless
municipalities covered by water districts.
- Thirty-three
(33) cities and municipalities were served
through the 61 completed projects.
- During
the first six months of 2009, LWUA under Chairman
Pichay formed or reactivated 125 water districts,
more than tripling in just 6 months the number
of water districts added to the national roster
since the start of this decade which was only
37.
Under
Chairman Pichay's leadership, the LWUA Board
of Trustees has drawn up bold and innovative
policies designed to accelerate water district
formation, ease up the financial burden of water
supply project loans on water districts, and
keep water service within the affordability
of provincial water consumers. At the same time,
the Chairman has inspired the re-tooling and
revitalization of LWUA itself to be on-par with
the accelerated needs of countryside water supply
development.
Among
the most significant policies deliberated upon
and approved by LWUA's policy-making body barely
a year after Chairman Pichay was appointed are
the:
-
inclusion of loan penalty condonation as a
form of financial assistance to distressed
water districts, on a case to case basis,
contained in Board Resolution No. 164, Series
of 2008 dated 29 October 2008
- reduction
of interest rates in LWUA's Loan Window 1,
contained in Board Resolution No 38, Series
of 2009, dated 10 March 2009 (READ
FULL RESOLUTION)
-
interest-free funding from non-LWUA initiated
funds extended to water service providers
on a 50-50 loan-grant mix, payable 10 to 20
years on a floating basis, contained in Board
Resolution No. 19, Series of 2009, dated 17
February 2009 (READ
FULL RESOLUTION)
- shortening
the process of water district formation by
removing public hearing as a requisite, contained
in Board Resolution No. 147, Series of 2009,
dated 9 June 2009 (READ
FULL RESOLUTION)
-
creation of the Water Technology Research
and Development Center which will develop
performance and quality standards and provide
technical and training assistance to local
water utilities, contained in Board Resolution
No. 152, Series of 2009, dated 30 June 2009
(READ
FULL RESOLUTION)
- policy
on ethical leadership and good governance
in response to the President's call for moral
renewal in government, contained in Board
Resolution No. 124, Series of 2009, dated
26 May 2009 (READ
FULL RESOLUTION)
In
the one year that Chairman Pichay has been with
the national water agency, he worked and succeeded
in making LWUA Project Funding an inclusion
in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) through
the Department of Public Works and Highways
(DPWH) and the Department of Health (DOH). A
total of P890 million has already been released
to LWUA: P490 million from the DPWH and another
P400 million from the National Government. An
approved P1.5 billion budget per GAA for CY
2009 is pending release from the DOH. Meanwhile,
the Chairman is working for other sources of
funds that would finance more water supply projects.
Given
the Chairman's earnest for sourcing funds and
his steadfast determination to provide the country's
provincial population with long-term water supply
service, LWUA has reactivated the feasibility
studies of its bulk water supply projects in
San Rafael in Bulacan, Tagbilaran in Bohol,
Pangasinan, and in the Cavite-Laguna area.
The
Chairman has also guided LWUA towards taking
an unprecedented step closer to its role as
a financial institution. Recently, the agency
obtained a 60 per cent share in a local bank.
Renamed the WE Bank (for water and energy),
its success will indeed redefine LWUA's role
in putting potable water in every meal table
in the Philippine countryside.
At
the same time, Chairman Pichay initiated a policy
change which effectively shortened the necessary
steps in water district formation (BOARD
RESOLUTION 147) by doing away with the required
public hearing during said process in communities
without existing water systems.
Operationally,
the agency complemented the accelerated formation
process by shortening the so-called project
cycle through a trimmed-down preparation time
of the Program-Of-Work (POW) and drawing up
the POW simultaneously with the formation of
the water district itself. Project completion
has also been restricted to within ten months
from the first release of funds. In addition,
the Agency has driven closer to maximizing the
use of the latest technologies that make transmittal
of project information seem like you were just
handing it to the person on the adjoining desk,
very convenient for an organization that functions
from the north of Luzon to the south of Mindanao.
Organizationally,
the people of LWUA -- the agency's prime resource
-- have welcomed and embraced the Pichay factor
which indisputably point them closer the the
agency's goal of providing safe, potable and
reliable water supply to the Philippine countryside.
Chairman Pichay's battlecry says it all: "Malinis
at murang tubig sa bawat tahanan!"
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I
accepted my appointment to LWUA as its Chairman
when the water agency was only 35 years old.
Now it is celebrating its 36th.
