CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija–A close relative of former Pampanga congressman Carmelo Lazatin has been
elected new president of the 86,000-strong farmers’ and irrigators’ group of
the Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation System of the National
Irrigation Administration.
Dante Lazatin won by a hairline over
Jaime Laysa Sr., 8-7 to become the new
head of the UPRIIS’ Confederation of Farmers’ Irrigators’ Association
(UCFIA) during its 12th election of officers at the UPRIIS
conference room here Friday.
Lazatin will serve up to 2016, replacing
Marcelo de Vera. Lazatin and de Vera fought for the presidency in 2012 which
ended in a tie. Lazatin gave way to de Vera.
Voters cast their vote through secret
balloting in elections administered by the UCFIA Commission on Elections led by
its chairman Armando Batongbakal and vice chairman was Juanito Adriano. Among
its members were Danilo Miranda, Danilo
Boles, Cesario Miranda and Florencio Llanes.
Laysa was later elected vice
president. Also elected were Danilo Miranda (treasurer) and Ben Gagelonia.
Appointed were Danilo Salavador
(secretary), Cesario Miranda (sergeant-at-arms), Rodrigo Jimenez, Pacifico
Antalan, Danilo Bolos, Batongbakal and Llanes.
Later, the new set of officers took
their oath before UPRIIS operations manager Josie B. Salazar.
Salazar, in her speech, cited the role
played by the UCFIA in the delivery of irrigation water in the service areas of
UPRIIS. She said the group helped UPRIIS attain a 75% collection efficiency
when it comes to collecting irrigation services fees (ISFs) from farmers.
She assured that UPRIIS would always
support the UCFIA in its various endeavors. “Remember that we have a blood
compact walang iwanan,” she said.
Lazatin for his part, said UCFIA will
always be a partner of UPRIIS and NIA, adding without them, their group will
never exist.
A
relative of Lazatin, Dante, 49, is a farmer, flight mechanic and Overseas
Filipino Worker (OFW) all rolled into one. He was a graduate of aeronautics
engineering at the Angeles University Foundation and once worked as flight
mechanic of the Philippine Air Lines (PAL).
He
later migrated to Barangay Nagpandayan, Guimba, Nueva Ecija where he tills a
10-hectare farm.
UPRIIS is the country’s largest NIS.
It is the operator of the giant Pantabangan Dam which irrigates over 100,000
hectares of farmlands in Central Luzon.
The
UCFIA is composed of 370 irrigators’ associations with 86,000 farmers ad
irrigators as members. (Manny Galvez)
