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The Orani Run

Luck is chance. It’s what keeps our fingers crossed as we line up our hopes for a changed life in a lotto betting station.Destiny, on the other hand, is something that awaits us at the other end of the line, the cumulative outcome of what we do.

On September 19, 2012, Orani Water District came face to face with its destiny.

That day, in the hallowed Rizal Ceremonial Hall of Malacañang Palace, adrenalins of excitement raced through three public servants as President Benigno S. Aquino III bestowed the district’s Operation and Management Excellence Team with the Civil Service Commission’s “PAGASA” Award (Group Category), an award that the commission has been conferring to exemplary public servants since 1975.

The Team was composed of Orani WD General Manager and Team Leader Benigno Andres, and team members Administration Division manager Conrado Buenaventura, Jr. and Technical Division manager Herminigildo Canlas, Sr., all representing a total regular workforce of only 29 serving over 8,000 connections. With the team was the water district’s board of directors chaired by Mr. Edmund M. Castañeda, DVM, and members Ms. Pagasa E. Pascual who sits as Vice-Chairman, Ms. Dorothy M. Galicia who acts as Secretary, and Ms. Teresa S. Santos.

Finally, what the district had been doing for years – as a matter of practice — to up the quality of its water service to the growing Orani community was now being commended, recognized and praised, and without them expecting it.

Lately, Orani WD has always had something good pointing it towards its mission of providing the community with “abundant and affordable potable water with high-quality service, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year” : an open-minded management and a supportive board of directors.

Just what did the Civil Service Commission (CSC) found in Orani WD worthy of a national award and a presidential presence?

On the award’s literature, the CSC recognized Orani WD’s “commitment to serve the public better, its good leadership and exemplary management performance” whose end results showed in operational and financial highlights such as:

• tremendous increase in gross income by 175%
  
• 96% impressive increase for its Operating Net Income in a span of 6 years
  
• increase in service connections by 70% from 5,624 to 8,011 concessioners
  
• decrease in debt equity ratio by 7% because of less borrowing during the years 2009 and 2010
  
• with respect to return on fixed asset, 8 to 9% net income generated from the invested capital was maintained which exceeded the 7% acceptable value of the rate of return based on LWUA standard
  
• increase in total assets of the district by almost 50%
  
• increase in total equity by 35%

CSC also noted that the group has “also shown excellence in cultural, economic, social, physical, spiritual and environmental preservation.”

Just doing the job

“We were just doing our job” was what every Orani WD employee this writer talked to was saying.

That “job” was keeping the residents and visitors of this old community in Bataan (Orani was founded by Spanish Dominican missionaries in 1587 and became an independent missionary center in 1741) sated with safe drinking water and a reliable water supply system on a 24/7 basis.

The award was unexpected, unsolicited, a non-target. In today’s corporate jargon, not part of their KRA or key result areas. It should also be noted that the CSC had taken precautions in their evaluation process to make certain that nothing but the subject’s records and performance would determine whether Orani WD would get the award or not.

During the evaluation period which timetable the CSC kept to itself, an official from the agency’s regional office visited Orani, unannounced and incognito and, for several days, interviewed town officials and residents on the operations and quality of service from the community’s water service provider. When water district people learned of the official’s presence much later, they offered to extend the official their hospitality, something Orani WD extends to its guests as part of its corporate culture. But the official, this writer was told, politely declined; he had already done his evaluative work at the same time.

A lean and coherent group of public servants

Orani WD has a core workforce of twenty-nine (29) men and women distributed between two divisions: administration and technical.

Orani WD general manager Benigno Andres, GM Benni to friends and staff alike, proudly describes his staff this way: “They are all trained in multi-tasking, and they always deliver.” A random and casual talk with any of his staff mirrors that same description, that same pride.

These 29 multi-trained individuals are responsible for that basic comfort of the community , which seems to have evaded some of Orani’s neighbors in Bataan that the water district had made plans to expand service to these areas. This lean group services over 8,000 individual water service connections (as of December 2012) — a number that routinely increases — in 28 of the first-class town’s 29 barangays. The first-class Orani community has close to 60,000 residents living in roughly 11,000 households, says a census done several years back.

GM Benni explains that his lean organization is able to measure up to job demands because they are well-trained, motivated and equipped with the right tools.

Such motivation, for instance, is unmistakable in Herminigildo S. Canlas, Sr. He is one of the earlier employees of the district, back in the days when it was a fledgling institution in the community and when the idea of treating as a commodity the water that one consumes was just as strange as the water district concept that brought it forth.

Known to friends and staff as Hermie, Mr. Canlas rose from his early meter reading and maintenance post to head Orani WD’s Technical Division. He is an undergraduate and has no qualms talking about it. He once subscribed to the belief: “kung di graduate, di magagampanan ang trabaho.” But the district equipped this non-engineer with trainings and exposures to boost his previous technical experiences, and Hermie absorbed the knowledge like a sponge would soak up water. GM Benni trusted him, he said, that the division under his leadership would perform well and it did. “Ang sekreto namin ay teamwork,” Hermie confided.

Embracing IT

Rather than be wary of the digital age and the fast-paced developments in IT or information technology, Orani WD’s management opted to avail of its best features that could optimize the water district’s operation and its staff’s work.

“Hindi na kami pang-cellphone lang (We now have gone beyond cellphones),” quipped one of GM Andres’ staff. While said in jest, that statement had more substance to it than a Philippine noontime show’s gags.

For starters, the water district began using a customized program for its billing and collection as early as 1999. While the water district could not really describe the program and what it expected of it as a perfect match, Orani WD apparently appreciated its potentials and, if a better or improved program would be in place, the boost to the district’s quality of service in terms of how efficient its billing and collection would be perceived by its clients, and the significant man-hours saved. So management set its eyes on improvement of the program and system.

Thus, by 2003, Orani WD could boast of being the only water district in the Bataan peninsula to have a fully computerized system.

That same year, the district had engaged the services of an IT corporation familiar with the needs of water districts and electric cooperatives, among other clients. It also hired an IT specialist “to further develop the water district core competency in this area.” No longer a newbie in the IT field, the water district went on to explore other the benefits of the digital age, including an intranet system that keeps its employees “on line” with each other.

To date, Orani WD has embedded into its operations the following IT tools:

• TUBS : Total Utility Billing System for Billing & Collection using Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) with Printer for on-the-spot meter reading & billing
• TAAPS : Total Attendance and Administrative Monitoring & Payroll System with EDS Finger ID System
• TWMS : Total Works Management for Inventories
• TGLS : Total General Ledger Systems for Accounting

In addition, Orani WD has discontinued the use of field collectors for bill payments and instead has adopted an office collection scheme using a Point-of-Sale (POS) system allowing real-time and up-to-date transaction records and account payment. Thus, any Aling Nita or Mrs. Santos who suddenly remembers she has a water bill to pay as she happens to pass by the water district office can make that transaction even if she also happens to have left her billing statement at home. This convenience has also protected the money payments of the district’s clients and eliminated risks of money collection misuse on the one hand, and encouraged regular visits by its clients thereby enhancing client-water district feedback mechanism and direct interaction of employees with those they are sworn to serve.

Management’s acceptance of useful features of the digital age has substantially contributed to Orani WD’s transition into what one can sweetly call a “platinum period” in its corporate life.

A family home cum public service center

One would hardly fail to notice, as one enters Orani WD’s premises, the large, silvery shiny letters boldly declaring the building as “Home of Orani Water District.”

True to the meaning of “home,” those who work within its walls consider their colleagues as family. A family that does not fall short of extending a warm smile to clients, guests, even strangers like this writer, as they step inside that home.

It was this culture of making one pleasantly feel at home that drove Bernard Milante, the district’s IT administrator, to relocate from Bicol, his home province, to Orani, convince his girlfriend to do the same, get married, start a family and a new life in Orani. It was a big move to transform one’s life from being a Bicolano to becoming a Bataanon. To this day, the couple has never regretted that move.

The fact is, the water district’s activities in implementing its CSR (corporate social responsibility) program helped in Bernard and Sheila Milante’s integration into the community as much as these facilitated the community’s acceptance of the water district as part of Orani, not simply as a local business but as a town institution.

Orani WD’s presence is not only in the water that residents drink. Nor is it simply in the monthly bills that they pay. Orani WD is in the improvement of the economic and social standing of deserving residents, in the community’s celebrations and fun activities, and in the town’s environmental concerns, among others.

A face one with its people

Since 1998, the district has been awarding scholarships to deserving students from the community, initially for a one-year secondary education assistance that the district upgraded in 2008 to a four-year complete tertiary education scholarship.

In fiesta celebrations, that centuries-old Filipino tradition still religiously and merrily observed in Orani as in all other provincial communities in the country, Orani WD is also felt by the community it serves; even allowing itself to be part of the town’s fiesta committee. Last year, they tapped various Orani citizens’ as well as government organizations into joining fiesta activities such as fun runs and banca races.

But beyond the face of an institution breathing with the community, Orani WD has long been presenting itself as an advocate both of personal and environmental health. For one, the district has been sponsoring an annual 3-kilometer, 5-kilometer and 10-kilometer fun runs to “create a higher level of awareness on the importance of drinking potable water and maintaining good health.” This has been an activity since 1999 and gathers participants from a wide age range, including those above 60; recently, it has embedded into the fun run activity the environmental health of the district’s Tala Watershed, encouraging donations for its protection and preservation.

It has also reinforced its institutional concern for matters affecting the Orani river, mounting steel wire fences on all river bridges traversing the town to deter “throwing of solid waste into the river.” It has also enrolled the cooperation of town leaders and chairmen of the different barangays surrounding the Orani river into an organization called “Samahang Bigay-Buhay sa Kailugan, ” looking at “increasing the level of awareness of the people on the beauty of having a clean and beautiful river” as its accomplishment. (The water district has also shown a similar commitment to the government’s effort to arrest or correct the degradation of our environment;)

GM Benni: transforming OWD into a “he man” of Orani

Orani WD was established in 1978, just a few years after the LWUA-Water District Concept was born through the Provincial Water Utilities Act of 1973. However, the district did not take off as expected, tied down by “talks of mismanagement and anomalies;” some residents even came close to describing the institution with unprintable words. LWUA, as overseer, was mandated to implement a full take over of its operations and management. It did so in 1992. After two years, LWUA believed it had put the district back on track and, with confidence, searched for and installed a new regular General Manager on the 16th of December, 1994.

That new man LWUA put its confidence in is Orani WD’s current general manager, Benigno Andres. GM Benni is an economics graduate from Ateneo de Manila, a leader who, true to his Atenean academic upbringing, is both athletically and intellectually-driven. He remains an idealist, someone not unfamiliar with meeting challenges. He was then with a Makati multinational firm pioneering in developing and marketing a communications (Easy Call) concept which paved the way for us to send and receive real-time messages or call each other from anywhere with a little gadget we casually refer to as “cp” or “cellphones.”

He looked at Orani WD as a challenge. Just as importantly, he was looking at that challenge through the eyes of someone from Orani; he was born and raised in the town.

GM Benni began facing the challenge by defining the organization’s direction, in consultation with “a good sample of its publics.” His approach, embedded into a set of plans drawn up to 2025, was definite: cut expenses, improve revenues. Gradually, water service did improve through well-calculated rehab works, interconnecting all pump stations to eliminate interruptions, increasing the network’s water pressure and water supply schedule to a 24-hour routine, and for accuracy, introduced water pressure monitoring via radio waves.

Organization-wise, GM Benni opted for a small but motivated workforce. “Lean but effective,” he said. He understood the human side of his employees, their needs. Competitive salaries would give meaning to their employment, but the challenge would be – and still is — that the water district would push them to perform and be efficient. Given the water district’s limited funds at the time, it was a gamble for the new general manager. GM Benni had faith on his people; he made the gamble and implemented the Salary Standardization Law which increased a government worker’s pay to a level comparable to a private worker’s rate. Orani WD was among the first water districts in the country to give its employees the benefits of the law.

But GM Benni did not stop at that in providing employees with motivation. In 1996, he initiated the formation of an employee cooperative that has undergone several transformations into what is now the OWDEE Cooperative. Officially registered with the Cooperative Development Authority, OWDEE is now a multi-million peso undertaking that already includes non-water district employees as associate members. To many employees, OWDEE has stood up for them during financially critical times.

In Orani WD’s view, the “perform and be efficient” part of the deal – the employees’ part — meant that the latter should accept and learn to be multi-skilled. Thus, opportunities were given for Orani WD employees to be transformed into a group of public servants very familiar with multi-tasking. For this end of the challenge, GM Benni took steps to arm his employees with skills and knowledge through trainings and seminars and keep them abreast with “current and emerging technologies.”

If one looks at Orani WD today as CSC did, one would have no doubts that GM Benni’s “gamble” paid off. A study conducted several years ago by American company Development Alternatives, Inc. classified Orani Water District as one of the six Class “A” water districts in the country, validating its reclassification from an average category water district to big in 2003 “for attaining a high level of performance in providing water service to its publics.”

Since then, Orani WD has acquired its new three-storey building (2006), received a special award for being a Creditworthy WD (2007), was granted authority by the CSC under its Acceditation Program – the first water district in Bataan to be given such – which authorized the district to take final action on appointments (2008), cited by the CSC as “the first water district in Region 3 to comply with the Anti-Red Tape Law” when it launched its Citizen’s Charter (2009).

The Orani WD story is all about focused and intelligent leadership as much as it is about dedicated followers, and just as much as about a contented, well-served public. Ever since the water district was turned over to a regular management and policy-making status, its pace has always been a run, a run to win, as it set its eyes beyond Orani’s borders to neighboring areas where a safe and modern water supply system is still something of a pipe dream, so to speak. 

Diadi: The Little Town That Could

Diadi, the last town of Nueva Vizcaya bordering Isabela is one of those rustic, laid-back towns that travelers almost unnoticeably pass by on their way to the northern provinces of Cagayan Valley. Its town proper is so small that travelling by bus at night, you won’t even notice that you have gone past it except when you have co-travellers who are specifically bound for the place.

But there is more to its still relatively intact natural environment and its refreshingly cooler ambiance and its friendly and hospitable folk that offers ready smile and helping hand to anyone that would come to visit or stay in Diadi for whatever good purpose it may be.

WELCOME TO CHANGE

For here is a little, unassuming community that is not averse to change and experimentation. Fact is, its people not only welcome but seem to crave for such, challenged and motivated as they seem to be by the challenge and the expectations.

They demonstrated this when Diadi after almost a decade of trying and striving, finally attained the distinction as the first and only municipality in the whole water-rich province of Nueva Vizcaya to adopt and embrace the water district concept and practice its principles in the development, management, operation and maintenance of its local water supply system.

Some could argue that Diadi was only constrained to adopt the water district concept and system in view of the fact that access to water in the municipality , being upland and mountainous is not as easy as in the lowland communities of the province as the capital town of Bayombong and the booming market town of Solano.

But the comparative difficulty in access to available water sources and resources only serves to even challenge, motivate and fortify the resolve of the fledgling Diadi Water District (DIWAD) and the local government as well as the people of the town to assume a pro-active, forward-looking stance in the development of the local water supply with the end-goal of achieving lasting sustainability and security in this vital element.

Hence, DIWAD now can also be considered as perhaps the first and only small water district in the country that is essentially and practically approaching water supply development not just from the stand point of from water source-to-faucets but from virtually watershed-to-faucets!

It helps that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) officials and operatives assigned to area, the province and the region are only too well aware of the extreme importance of nurturing, protecting and preserving the watersheds in attaining long-term water source and supply sustainability and security.

It was these DENR authorities together with the corporate social responsibility-conscious people from the National Power Corporation (NPC) operating the local Magat Hydroelectric Power Plant that initiated and played key roles in the bayanihan-type efforts that eventually led to the development of Diadi’s first modern water supply system in 2007.

DEVELOPING THE WATER SYSTEM

It was as early as 1997 that the first attempt at developing the Diadi water supply system was started under the then administration of Mayor Norma U. Miguel, incidentally also now the sitting hizzoner, when a technical team from the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) came to determine the feasibility and viability of establishing water supply services in the town in accordance with the provision of Provincial Water Utilities Act or the LWUA-Water District Law.

Efforts were made in the ensuing years to come up with cost-effective and financially-sound program to provide for the immediate improvement of the system that resulted to the following:

1. The construction/installation of the water tank/reservoir which was funded by the NPC under the provision of Energy Regulation 1
2. Source development/Well Drilling that was funded by the Countrywide Development Fund of then Senator Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr., and
3. Pipeline component funded by a loan by the Diadi LGU from the Developemnt Bank of the Philippines (LBP) under its LGU Support Credit Program.

On February 13, 2006, the Sangguniang Bayan of Diadi passed a resolution creating the Diadi Water District to provide safe, potable and adequate drinking water supply to residents of the municipality.

The Diadi LGU and the DIWAD forged a Memo of Agreement for the LGU to turn over the watr supply facilities for the operation and management of the water district and to amortize the corresponding LBP loan to the LGU.

In June 2006, the DIWAD Board of Directors through the assistance of the LGU’s Human Resources Management Office opened the position for the water district’s first officially-appointed general manager who turned out to be a young engineer named. Manolito Supnet who at first worked as a volunteer because there was no funds yet for his salary. The DIWAD Board likewise asked then Mayor Marvic Padilla for an office space within the LGU compound. The LGU gave authority for the DIWAD to use a vacant stall located at the nearby public market as temporary office.

On March 2, 2007, the DIWAD requested the DENR through the then Regional Executive Director Clarence L. Baguiat for permit for the water district’s use of the abandoned open pit excavation, construction of a 10 meters X 10 meters fenced pumphouse, slope and erosion control riprap and pipeline and power-line right of way in a portion of a lot northwest of the national road within the DENR Experimental Forest Reserve at Barangay Bugnay. Initial survey of the location was conducted with the assistance of the LWUA technical personnel to evaluate the discharge of water from the available spring source during that summer season.

In May 2007, DIWAD started to hire additional people to fill its technical section, particularly the position of pump operator, meter reader/ plumber to work with the LGU in installing the transmission and distribution lines and the service connections and its commercial section to help in the preparation of needed data and documents in establishing the water district. On volunteer status, Joel Ramos was appointed to the technical position while Roanne Marantan and Racquel Dulnuan were appointed as cashier and bookkeeper, respectively. The bookkeeper of the nearby Cordon Water District assisted in the training of DIWAD commercial staff.

Due to the then still minimal collection from the then less than a hundred service connectors, the DIWAD asked the LGU for the continued electric power subsidy until the end of 2007.

By August 2007, GM Supnet received his first salary of P8,000.00 and the three staff were rated on daily basis.

A composite team from the DENR,the LGU and DIWAD headed by DENR Regional Technical Director for Research Wilfredo C. Malvar assessed the requested area in the Experimental Forest Reserve and found out that a bigger area must be allocated for the inclusion of a watershed for development to ensure the sustainability of water supply for the water system project.

On November 22, 2007, an exploration team from LWUA headed by Engr. Romeo M. Diaz together with DIWAD personnel conducted a survey of the possible site of the proposed sedimentation/collection tank and the location of the transmission pipelines.

On December 2007, DIWAD availed of P5 million loan from LWUA for additional water sources in the vicinity of Barangay Bugnay to ensure the sustainability of water supply for the growing number of consumers in Barangays Poblacion and Bugnay to include the development of spring and river infiltration structures, construction of treatment and collection tank, laying and installation of transmission and distribution pipelines, Installation of service connection and other appurtenances

On January 3, 2008, DIWAD hired private surveyor to locate the technical description of a 10- hectare lot within the experimental forest reserve located at Barangay Bugnay which is necessary in the establishment of the Memorandum of Agreement between the DENR, the LGU and the Water District.

On January 25, 2008, the DIWAD Board requested Mayor Marvic S. Padilla to permit the LGU-Diadi Bids and Awards Committee as interim Bids and Awards Committee relevant to the DIWAD LWUA-ICG Funded project for the construction of spring source development, sedimentation/collection tank, service connections, pipelines and related works.

On April 3, 2008, the DENR, LGU & DIWAD formally signed a MOA for the 10 hectares watershed area.

The supply of transmission and distribution pipes was awarded to the winning bidder and the excavation and laying of materials was administered by the district and on October 2008, the P5.0M LWUA-ICG Fund project was finished.

On April 27, 2009 the DENR thru its Upland Development Program (UDP) awarded 10 hectares reforestation project to DIWAD within the Ganano Watershed located at Bugnay, Diadi, Nueva Vizcaya adjacent to the previously awarded 10 hectares watershed area.

Because of the heavy rain brought by typhoon Emong last May 8, 2009, the intake spring source was heavily damage and the water supply was shut down for almost a week. The management thru its DIWAD Internal Generated fund rehabilitated the damage river intake to normalized the operation of the district and constructed a 4 stage filtration tank to ensure the safety of the consuming public .

With the occurrence of El Nino Phenomenon in the country from December 2009 to July of 2010 that dried up the spring source and stop the operation of the deepwell source, the DIWAD requested the LWUA for a P2.385M Emergency Calamity Loan for the development of additional water source to mitigate the ill effect of the said El Nino Phenomenon and sustain water service to the 320 active concessionaires. The said Loan was release on April 5, 2010 payable in 10 years which will start on October 2010.

On August 2, 2010. The DENR thru the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office grant the cutting permit to the DIWAD for the G-Melina tress around the new pumping station for the construction of a multi-purpose hall at the Pinagbalitukan watershed area.

Last September, a survey team of the DENR with DIWAD staff, explore the Magat experimental reserve to identify a 30 hectares area for the establishment of an Agroforestry project in the watershed area.

How is a Water District formed?

A duly-organized water district is formed through the following process:

One: LWUA conducts preliminary talks and consultations with interested local government entities.

Two: The local government conducts public hearings to arrive at a consensus on whether to form a water district or not. (LWUA Board Resolution No. 147, Series of 2009, amended the Guidelines for the Formation of Water Districts in Communities Without Existing Water System, and states that “LWUA shall no longer require a public hearing on water district formation as a requisite for the filing of the same.”)

Three: The local legislative body (the Sangguniang Bayan/Lungsod or Sangguniang Panlalawigan, as the case may be) secures nominations for candidates for the water district board of directors from business, civic, professional, education and women sectors of the community concerned.

Four: The Sanggunian secretary collates all nominations and forwards the same to the appointing authority.

Five: The Mayor or Governor appoints the directors.

Six: The local legislative body deliberates and enacts a resolution to form a water district stating therein the name and terms of office of the duly appointed board of directors.

Seven: The Mayor or Governor approves resolution, submits the same to LWUA.

Eight: LWUA reviews the resolution to determine compliance with Presidential Decree No. 198 (Provincial Water Utilities Act of 1973) and LWUA requirements.

Nine: If the resolution complies with requirements, LWUA issues a Conditional Certificate of Conformance (CCC), a water district is born and becomes eligible to avail of LWUA’s comprehensive assistance program.

Source: Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA)

What is a Water District?

A water district is a local corporate entity that operates and maintains a water supply system in one or more provincial cities or municipalities. It is established on a local option basis and, like LWUA, is classified as a government-owned and controlled corporation or GOCC. A WD is run by a five-man Board of Directors through a General Manager.

What types of loans are open to Water Districts?

LWUA offers four loan windows to water districts (click here for details).

Loan Window 1 is open to Level III (individual household connection) and Level II (communal faucet) projects intended for the comprehensive development, repair or rehabilitation of new or existing water supply systems with interest rates ranging from 8.5-15 % p.a. and a 25-year repayment scheme that includes a 4-year grace period. Available loan is from 40-100 % of project cost.

Loan Window 2 is open to projects intended to generate new service connections or for watershed management, and to special loans intended for emergency purposes. Available loan is from 50-100 % of project cost and interest rates are based on prevailing applicable rates.

Loan Window 3 is open to projects intended to enhance water supply facilities or commercial operations. Maximum loan available is set to 100% of project cost while the repayment period is either the equivalent to the life of asset acquired or repayment period contracted with the fund source.

Loan Window 4, also called the Project Development and Efficiency Improvement Fund (PDEIF), is intended for project development and for efficiency improvement activities such as non-revenue water reduction. The former is available to all water districts and is offered at 6.56 % annual interest, the latter only to “semi-creditworthy” and “pre-creditworthy” water districts at interest rates of 8.2-8.7 % p.a.

Special Loan Window is the latest lending facility of LWUA. It is intended for water district expansion projects, well drilling and development of water sources. Maximum loan amount is P10 million and carries a 7.5% p.a. interest rate for a 10-year loan and 9% p.a. for a 15 to 20-year loan.

Source: Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA)