Some 33 barangays of Diliman Creek and its tributaries will compete for the best mural painting in time for the national celebration of World Environment Day on June 5 and June as Philippine Environment Month.

According to Environmental Management Bureau Director Juan Miguel Cuna, the activity aims to promote among residents of each barangay on the importance of rehabilitating Diliman Creek and heighten their participation to ensure its tributaries remain free from garbage.

“We have asked each barangay to provide wall space where its residents can easily see the mural painting that their barangay will create. The mural will remind them of their commitment to continue working for the full rehabilitation of Diliman Creek,” Cuna said.

Open to all 33 barangays of Diliman Creek and tributaries, the contest allows only one (1) entry for each barangay. Each barangay team must have a minimum of three (3) members who are bonafide residents of the barangay. A minimum of 3 meters x 5 meters wall space or an area of approximately 15 square meters or more will be provided by the participating barangay. The theme for the contest is “Sama-sama Tayo Tungo sa Malinis na Katubigan at Luntiang Kapaligiran.”

The contest will be conducted from June 1 to June 5, 2011. Judging and awarding ceremonies will be held on June 16, 2011. To award the winners, local officials of the Quezon City government led by Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista and Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte are expected to grace the event.

A total of eight (8) winners will be awarded cash prizes of Php 30,000, Php 20,000, and Php 10,000 for the top three spots and 5 consolation prizes of Php 2,000 each. Barangay councils will also receive a portion of the prize money for first, second and third prize winners valued at Php 5,000, Php, 4,000, Php 3,000, respectively.

The competition is an offshoot of the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) signing for the “Save the Diliman Creek” Program launched last April 19, 2011 during the Earth Day Celebration at SM Megamall.

Among the partners for the said program are the DENR, Quezon City Local Government, the Philippine Mine Safety and Environment Association and Sagip Ilog Pilipinas Movement. The 33 local officials of barangays traversing the creek served as witnesses to the signing of the agreement and showed their support by initiating orchestrated clean-ups of creeks within their area every fourth Sunday of each month.

The Mural Painting Contest is being organized by the DENR through its Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), with support from the Philippine Mine Safety and Environment Association (PMSEA), Sagip-Ilog Pilipinas Movement, and Pacific Paint (Boysen) Philippines, Inc.

Details

Published: 30 May 2011

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje expressed humility on President Aquino’s decision to appoint him on a permanent capacity, saying he is even “more challenged” now with his designation as well to head the Cabinet cluster on climate change mitigation and adaptation.

At the same time, Paje called on all officials and employees of the DENR to continue supporting the president’s agenda for “tuwid na daan” by helping the people break from the bondage of poverty through improved programs on environmental protection and natural resources management.
“I am deeply happy and humbled by the President’s decision and I intend to be worthy of the honor of the President’s confidence,” Paje said.

While maintaining that he will continue to serve at the pleasure of the President, Paje vowed to continue initiating administrative and policy reforms in the department.

He emphasized to the DENR employees the importance of fitness in government service. “Performers will be rewarded while the rogue and corrupt officials and employees shall be punished,” Paje said.

The DENR chief also added that erring employees shall not be allowed to tarnish the good name of the institution, “Kailanman ay hindi natin hahayaang sirain ng iilang tiwaling opisyal o empleyado ang pinagtrabahuan natin,” he said.

Paje also welcomed his latest assignments as chairman of the Cabinet cluster for climate change mitigation and adaptation, and as a member of the cluster on human development and poverty reduction. “I am doubly challenged now with the added mandates from the President,” Paje stressed.

President Aquino issued on May 13, Executive Order No. 43 creating five Cabinet clusters, namely: Good Governance and Anti-Corruption; Human Development and Poverty Reduction; Economic Development; Security, Justice and Peace; Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation.

Under the order, the DENR secretary shall serve as chairman of the cluster on climate change mitigation and adaptation and as a member in the human development and poverty reduction cluster.

The other members of the climate change cluster include the chairmen of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and the Metro Manila Development Authority; the secretaries of the Departments of Science and Technology, Interior and Local Government, Public Works and Highways, Social Welfare and Development, Agriculture, Agrarian Reform, Energy, and National Defense. The Climate Change Commission shall function as the secretariat for the cluster.

“With the inclusion of climate change, the President has effectively reconfigured the entire bureaucracy into global-warming-responsive state apparatus,” he said.

Paje noted the cluster system would have the advantage of ensuring greater coordination of policies, programs and strategies among government agencies resulting in greater complementation of policies within the same cluster and across clusters.

“It will ensure complementation between education policy and health policy; industrial policy and macro-economic policy; social, environmental and economic policy,” Paje added, noting the system will also allow policy makers to anticipate, for, example, impacts of economic policy on employment creation and poverty reduction and environmental management as these policies would be clearly spelled out through a coordinated approach to policy formulation and planning.

Other important green initiatives of President Aquino, said Paje, include Executive Order No. 23, which bans logging in natural forests and the creation of an inter-agency task force against illegal logging, and Executive Order No. 26 declaring the implementation of the National Greening Program as a government priority program. “From ground-breaking presidential fiats like Executive Orders 23 and 26 to his initiatives in rallying our countrymen to celebrate the richness of the country’s natural splendor, the President has amply proven his commitment to the perpetuity of our country’s natural resources,” said Paje, citing the issuance of Executive Order (EO) No. 43 as “yet another example of the President’s commitment to his green agenda to safeguard and enrich the strength and viability of our nation both for the present and future generations.”

Details

Published: 29 May 2011

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje expressed humility on President Aquino’s decision to appoint him on a permanent capacity, saying he is even “more challenged” now with his designation as well to head the Cabinet cluster on climate change mitigation and adaptation.

At the same time, Paje called on all officials and employees of the DENR to continue supporting the president’s agenda for “tuwid na daan” by helping the people break from the bondage of poverty through improved programs on environmental protection and natural resources management.
“I am deeply happy and humbled by the President’s decision and I intend to be worthy of the honor of the President’s confidence,” Paje said.

While maintaining that he will continue to serve at the pleasure of the President, Paje vowed to continue initiating administrative and policy reforms in the department.

He emphasized to the DENR employees the importance of fitness in government service. “Performers will be rewarded while the rogue and corrupt officials and employees shall be punished,” Paje said.

The DENR chief also added that erring employees shall not be allowed to tarnish the good name of the institution, “Kailanman ay hindi natin hahayaang sirain ng iilang tiwaling opisyal o empleyado ang pinagtrabahuan natin,” he said.

Paje also welcomed his latest assignments as chairman of the Cabinet cluster for climate change mitigation and adaptation, and as a member of the cluster on human development and poverty reduction. “I am doubly challenged now with the added mandates from the President,” Paje stressed.

President Aquino issued on May 13, Executive Order No. 43 creating five Cabinet clusters, namely: Good Governance and Anti-Corruption; Human Development and Poverty Reduction; Economic Development; Security, Justice and Peace; Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation.

Under the order, the DENR secretary shall serve as chairman of the cluster on climate change mitigation and adaptation and as a member in the human development and poverty reduction cluster.

The other members of the climate change cluster include the chairmen of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and the Metro Manila Development Authority; the secretaries of the Departments of Science and Technology, Interior and Local Government, Public Works and Highways, Social Welfare and Development, Agriculture, Agrarian Reform, Energy, and National Defense. The Climate Change Commission shall function as the secretariat for the cluster.

“With the inclusion of climate change, the President has effectively reconfigured the entire bureaucracy into global-warming-responsive state apparatus,” he said.

Paje noted the cluster system would have the advantage of ensuring greater coordination of policies, programs and strategies among government agencies resulting in greater complementation of policies within the same cluster and across clusters.

“It will ensure complementation between education policy and health policy; industrial policy and macro-economic policy; social, environmental and economic policy,” Paje added, noting the system will also allow policy makers to anticipate, for, example, impacts of economic policy on employment creation and poverty reduction and environmental management as these policies would be clearly spelled out through a coordinated approach to policy formulation and planning.

Other important green initiatives of President Aquino, said Paje, include Executive Order No. 23, which bans logging in natural forests and the creation of an inter-agency task force against illegal logging, and Executive Order No. 26 declaring the implementation of the National Greening Program as a government priority program. “From ground-breaking presidential fiats like Executive Orders 23 and 26 to his initiatives in rallying our countrymen to celebrate the richness of the country’s natural splendor, the President has amply proven his commitment to the perpetuity of our country’s natural resources,” said Paje, citing the issuance of Executive Order (EO) No. 43 as “yet another example of the President’s commitment to his green agenda to safeguard and enrich the strength and viability of our nation both for the present and future generations.”

Details

Published: 29 May 2011

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has secured the support of more than 5-million students in public elementary and secondary schools nationwide, along with officials and community leaders in 42,000 barangays, to kick off the National Greening Program (NGP).

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje said Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala will also mobilize the personnel of the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) in all regions to support the greening efforts, particularly its biofertilizer requirements.

Paje has been tasked by President Aquino to take the lead in the NGP, which was established through Executive Order No. 26 issued on February 24, 2011 to complement the prohibition of logging in natural and residual forests through Executive Order No. 23.

NGP mandates the planting of some 1.5 billion trees in 1.5 million hectares of denuded and marginal lands all over the country from 2011 to 2016.
EO 26 also mandates the participation of 14 departments and government agencies, State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), local government units (LGUs) and enjoins non-government organizations (NGOs) and people's organizations (POs) to join the effort.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) also play a key role in the program as part of the National Convergence Initiative (NCI). NGP targets 100,000 hectares for replanting in 2011; 200,000 hectares for 2012; and 300,000 hectares yearly from 2013 to 2016 to complete its goal of reforesting a total of 1.5 million hectares.

The DENR chief said the NGP is also an economic program since it complements the DA's goal of achieving food security and alleviating poverty. NGP actually seeks to make 8 million hectares of degraded land productive in the long run.

“If for every hectare of land produces P10,000 per year,” Paje said, “this would mean an additional income of P80 billion for rural families annually.”

DAR Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes noted that since agrarian reform communities (ARCs) are located in or in the vicinity of forests, he said residents in these communities maintain close and mutually beneficial and protective relationship with forests.

“If we cannot protect our forests, we cannot protect our agrarian reform beneficiaries,” he said.

In his speech, read by Philippine Agricultural Development and Commercial Corp. (PADCC) president Marriz B. Agbon, Alcala lauded the NCI and committed the DA to science-led sustainable agricultural technologies and development.

“Malinaw ang mga direktang benepisyo: Bawas-insidente ng kahirapan at kagutuman sa mga dahop na komunidad sa kapatagan man o uplands, at katiyakan sa pambansang kasapatan sa pagkain,” Alcala explained.

Citing the need for more irrigation facilities to enable farming, Alcala also underlined DA efforts to develop scientific organic farming in the countryside, reducing the costs of input to farmers and moving faster into sustainable natural methods.

Soil fertility and care being paramount, Alcala assigned BSWM to spearhead the organic development effort.

The Department of Education (DepEd) has committed 5-million students and faculty members to back up NGP.

Grades 5 and 6 and high school students will be focused on the denuded areas planting effort, while elementary schools will support the nursery efforts.

The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) has committed the support of all SUCs and private colleges within its system.

For its part, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has committed to mobilize officials and residents in 42,000 barangays nationwide for the effort.

Details

Published: 28 May 2011

In a move to fast track the cadastral survey of all cities and municipalities nationwide, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje issued new guidelines on the final disposition of abandoned cadastral survey projects.

At the same time, Paje directed all regional officials to conduct an inventory of abandoned cadastral survey projects and establish a database to facilitate the determination of needed actions to complete the undertaking.

“Among the concerns of the present administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III is to fast-track the nationwide cadastral survey. This is in support of other critical projects of the government, such as land titling, land use planning, taxation and the internal revenue allotment (IRA) program for the different municipalities nationwide,” DENR Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje said.

Paje, however, said the nationwide cadastral survey program is hindered by some abandoned survey projects which the government has contracted out with private surveyors.

“DENR Administrative Order No. 2011-05, which sets the new guidelines on the disposal of abandoned cadastral survey projects, is intended not only to systematize the process of resolving this issue of abandoned or incomplete cadastral survey projects but also to facilitate the development of a database that can also serve as a monitoring tool as it can be updated anytime,” Paje explained.

Cadastral survey is a type of land survey intended to determine the administrative boundary of a city or a municipality and its component barangays. It also includes the determination of administrative boundary of lots in alienable and disposable lands of the public domain for purposes of land titling.

Paje said the DENR is set to complete the survey of 263 more municipalities and 18 cities with total coverage of 6,312, 932 hectares during year.

Records from the Land Management Bureau indicated that from 2007 to 2010, some 104 cities and 780 municipalities, with accumulated area of 16,898,210 hectares, already have complete and approved cadastral survey results, while some 294 municipalities and 12 cities with total land area of 6,718,043 hectares are partially surveyed.

“This leaves us with 45 municipalities to target in the coming years, and those that have been left abandoned,” Paje said.

Among other things, the DENR order provides for the procedures in handling abandoned cadastral surveys, including incomplete projects, projects with uncorrected survey returns, unfinished survey projects either due to the death of the contractor or force majeure.

Under the order, a cadastral survey project is considered abandoned under the following conditions: 1) when field activities are left unfinished after the period stipulated in the contract, 2) when the contractors fail to correct survey defects within the period to be determined by the DENR regional office, and 3) when such cadastral project awarded in earlier DENR cadastral programs is listed as “not completed” in the DENR inventory.

Paje said he has given the regional executive director (RED) of the DENR the authority to cancel abandoned cadastral survey projects and to determine the appropriate sanctions to be imposed on the contractor.

Among the grounds where the RED can imposition sanctions against an erring contractor or geodetic engineer include the following: failure to complete the survey within the contract period; failure to undertake the necessary correction of the survey projects within the prescribed period; failure to return survey project records; and other violations on other provisions in the contract.

Details

Published: 27 May 2011