Tuesday, May 26, 2015

NIA ADMINISTRATOR IS A NATIVE ILOCANO

Engineer Florencio Farinas Padernal, outstanding alumnus of Ilocos Sur National High School Class ’67, was named administrator of National Irrigation Administration (NIA) by the agency’s board of directors followed by his appointment into the board by President Benigno Aquino III, July 1, 2014.

The appointment of Engr. Padernal is the third agency, the other two were National Food Authority (NFA) and the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), formerly under the Department of Agriculture (DA) to experience a change in leadership since the appointment of Secretary Francis Pangilinan as Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization, who will handle the three mentioned agencies including the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority.

Padernal takes over an agency that needs to irrigate more than 1.3 million hectares of land.

We trust the reforms Dr. Florencio Padernal will institute in NIA for its projects’ betterment. The agency, under the leadership of Padernal, envisions to extend substantial help to our Filipino farmers especially now that our course is towards farmer empowerment,” said Secretary Pangilinan.

The new chief of NIA is a registered Civil Engineer and a Doctor of Public Administration. He is a businessman engaged in construction and consulting businesses.

Dr. Padernal has more than three decades of engineering and management experience in the fields of master planning, feasibility study preparation, project preparation, institution building, human resource development, construction management, operation and management of water systems, build-operate-transfer schemes, and financial engineering.

Padernal came from the private sector as Chief Executive Officer of Padernal Construction Company Incorporated. He has had more than a decade of experience working for the government. He worked for 11 years at the Department of Public Works and Highways as Chief Civil Engineer then as an Assistant Director and Project Director. From 2002 to 2004, he was Chairman of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), in-charge of converting former US military bases into civilian use for new economic opportunities. He also served as Chief Technical Advisor for the World Bank in 1990, then as a consultant in 1993.

Aside from the above mentioned positions, he was the president of the ISNHS Global Foundation, Inc. and played an important role during the ISNHS Grand Centennial Homecoming celebrations, being the Chairman.

Engr. Padernal, a native of Vigan, is the son of late Melanio and Matilde Padernal. Both of his parents worked in ISNHS, his father as a classroom teacher and his mother as a principal.

He and his wife Tessie are blessed with three children. (CAGiron) #. Adapted News, ISNHS

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