After months of careful and objective deliberation, the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) has bestowed upon NIA Administrator Florencio F. Padernal the Commission's highest award given to professionals from different fields. This year, Dr. Padernal will receive from the PRC the 2015 Outstanding Professional of the Year Award in the field of Civil Engineering in recognition of his efforts and initiatives contributing not just to his field but also to the country.
Dr. Padernal is a Civil Engineer who specializes in the fields of project/construction management, master and development planning, institution and capability building, and engineering. Aside from Engineering, he also specializes on public administration.
For over 36 years of professional excellence, he has held prominent positions in his career. Before becoming the NIA Administrator, he served from March 2002 to October 2004 as Chairman of the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA), an office mandated chiefly to transform military baselands to fund the modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and to finance selective infrastructure projects.
He also became the Chief Technical Advisor (1990 to 1993) of the United Nations Development Programme/World Bank Water and Sanitation Program and provided advisory services to water companies in and governments of China and Mongolia on the organization and construction of water systems, and administered capacity building programs in communities and to sector agencies to improve systems operations.
Earlier in his career (1987 to 1989), he became a temporary Advisor to the World Health Organization on sustainable operation of water supply systems. Also, for about Nine (9) years (1982 to 1990), he was Project Director for Water Supply of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), responsible for exercising over-all planning execution and control of rural water supply projects implemented throughout the Philippines. He was also assigned as Sector Coordinator.
In his 16 years in DPWH, Dr. Padernal has been instrumental in the formulation of the Water Supply, Sewerage and Sanitation Master Plan (1987), the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Master Plan (1982) and Integrated Water Supply and Sanitation Program (1980), which served as references in the implementation of water supply and sanitation projects in the Philippines and other countries. He also helped in the development and implementation of over 20 foreign assisted - water supply projects in remote and poor areas of the country.
The Outstanding Professional of the Year Award, first given by the PRC in 1977, is the highest award given by the Commission to a professional "as recommended by his/her peers for having amply demonstrated professional competence of the highest degree and conducted himself/herself with integrity in the exercise of his/her profession."
The recognition is also bestowed to a professional considering his/her "meaningful participation in professional activities, significant contribution to the advancement of the profession, and contribution to the effective discharge of the profession's social responsibility and other worthwhile socio-related activities."
The award will be handed to Dr. Padernal on June 18 at the Manila Hotel during the PRC Awards Night in celebration of PRC's "Professionals Consciousness Week."
