CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija – The first-ever woman irrigation manager of an irrigation system in the country was named national Pag-asa individual awardee of the Civil Service Commission.
Engr. Josephine Salazar, operations manager of National Irrigation Administration-Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation System (NIA-UPRIIS) who received an award as finalist at the CSC regional office in Pampanga last Monday was called to receive the national award in Malacañang on Sept. 19.
This as Salazar admitted having exerted extraordinary efforts to balance her work and family obligations.
“That is the biggest challenge on my part,” she said.
Salazar, who has received recognition as most outstanding irrigation manager for three consecutive years prior to her appointment as NIA-UPRIIS operations manager in October 2011, was conferred on Monday the CSC’s Pag-asa Award Individual Category.
Pag-asa award is one of the HONOR Awards Program (HAP) that, according to the CSC, is an “annual undertaking of the Civil Service Commission that recognizes government officials and employees who have displayed outstanding work performance.”
“The conferment of Honor awards aims to motivate or inspire government employees to improve the quality of their performance and instill deeper involvement in public service.
The search culminates with the recognition and conferment of awards to deserving public servants during the celebration of the anniversary of the Philippine Civil Service in September,” it explained.
Salazar, however, was quick to credit her co-workers and farmers for the success of the programs she has implemented to further irrigation services.
“How we improved our financial resources, how we improved our irrigated areas as well as our collection, they were all because of their support,” she stressed.
She added that even farmer organizations called irrigators associations (IAs) “have contributed much in our institutional aspect that they became instrument for us to convey government programs to the farmers.”
As a woman who assumed the post on a basically male-dominated agency, Salazar said she sees to it that she leaves nothing unattended in terms of irrigation services.
She has been leading agency officials in personally checking facilities at the height of typhoons, especially during the recent floodings. “And during dry season, we have to make sure that rice fields in the tail-ends are given irrigation water,” she said.
Engr. Jose Ariel Domingo, manager of Division 3, said he and his fellow officials and employees are thankful that the CSC has recognized the efforts of Salazar.
“She really deserves the award,” Domingo said.
