CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE DENR PORTFOLIO

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY-Philippines Network
Green Families and Communities Network (GFCN)
Eighth Annual Assembly June 5, 2010 1-6 p.m.Miriam College - Environment Studies Institute (ESI) Loyola Heights, Quezon City
PROPOSED RESOLUTIONS
Paper basis for a Resolution: Critique of the DENR (Submitted by Dr. Ernesto R. Gonzales, Ph. D., from ASI-Manila and LSE-London)

A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE DENR PORTFOLIO:
BASIS FOR THE PROGRAM OF ACTION FOR THE NEXT ADMINISTRATION

(ABSTRACT)

One of the ultimate reasons behind the poverty of Filipinos in our seven thousand one hundred one islands, is the destruction of ecological habitat of the millions of ecology dependent families of tribal societies in the upland, farming families in the lowland and fishing families in the vast coastal area considered to be twice longer than the entire coast of the United States of America. These are the three sectors of the Economy of the Commons in our Island Economic Systems. At present, this marginalization of communities primarily dependent upon Ecological Habitat, became the primary actors beneath the new dimensions of social realities in our society: Overseas Contract Workers and the Phenomenon of Urban Poverty (railroad and solid wastes dependent communities, in Payatas, and so forth).

The bottomline here is the destruction of ecology systems where these millions of families have been primarily dependent for daily sustenance in the upland, lowland and coastal areas in the country. The protection and preservation of these eco-systems have been the primary mandate of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

While the effect is clearly manifested in the Domain of the DENR, the causes is clearly in another Domain, that of NEDA, specifically its Medium Term Development Plan, which had created all of this pandemonium in the Economy of the Commons. The way out therefore of National Poverty that we are in today is not only along the Dimension of the Domain of NEDA but a balance between the domain of the Economy of Globalization of NEDA with the Economy of the Commons within the Domain of the DENR.

A handy tool for this dilemma is a National Environment Plan approved by the Filipino People through a Regional Consensus of the Office of the President. In this regard, the National Environment Plan of the DENR became a tool to audit the adverse impact of the Medium Term Development Plan of NEDA on the Economy of the Commons in the Countrysides.

At present, there are no clear dimensions of thinking along this line of conflict between the Economy of Globalization of NEDA and Economy of the Commons supposed to be protected by the DENR. With this, too, all the regional offices of the DENR must be fully equipped to implement the objectives defined by this National Environment Plan, approved by the Filipino people under the leadership of no less than the President of the Republic of the Philippines.

-o0o-

Note from the WED-Phils. Secretariat: Comments on this paper are very much welcome. So are proposed resolutions that can be drafted after reading this. Submission of uch proposed resolutions shall not in any way impede Dr. Gonzales from drafting and submitting his own draft resolution, if he so desides to do so, preferably at least a full day before the start of the WED-Phils Annual Assembly early in the afternoon of June 5.

Background Note No. 1: Current level of comments aired during the ongoing active sharing and exchange of opinions among opinion-makers in the environment movement about the current president-apparent Noynoy Aquino's choice of whom to appoint as DENR Secretary in his Cabinet.

Background Note No. 2: The well-remembered editorial of Kamayan Forum Journal, Issue No. 9, November 2002,

Environment Department a ‘Hardship Post’

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SECRETARIES of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources have come and gone, but still the overall performance of DENR at any given time has depended more on the political will of their respective presidential bosses for environmental conservation.
And because such political will has not been known to exist, the powerless secretaries have had to suffer blackeyes from the viewpoint of a citizenry indignant over the department’s dismal record.

.....When former DENR Sec. Jun Factoran spoke during the first-ever session of Kamayan para sa Kalikasan forum back in 1990, he was saying he faced a big challenge in the apparently anti-environment predispositions of the economic secretaries in Cory Aquino’s Cabinet. We sympathized with him and wished him luck in the effort to influence those adversaries for the sake of Mother Nature. Shortly before ending his term, however, he returned to the forum speaking much like a technocrat from NEDA.
.....Sec. Angel Alcala was even an environmentalist before he was drafted to head the DENR, but the department did not perform much better under his helm. It would be safe to assume that most, if not all, who have succumbed to the draft had all the best intentions to clean up the DENR, to institute reforms and transform the department into an effective guardian of the natural environment that it was created to be. When they speak of their plans and promises they are impassioned enough to convince many at least of the earnestness of their intentions. However the public has always had reason to half-expect the plans and promises to be replaced sooner or later with whispered handwashings and other excuses. Ipit kami eh! Our hands are tied, we can do nothing but obey the president. Such honesty in private whispers!
.....Actually, they can do something when their respective presidents order them to sign permits for environmentally-destructive projects. They can resign and deprive the Palace of a fall guy and a deodorant. The fact that they don’t choose that extremely difficult but very honorable option does not mean the option doesn’t exist. It does!
.....It boils down to political will and integrity, not only the presidents’ but theirs. President Gloria Arroyo reportedly ordered pointblank a DENR official to sign the ECC for the coal-fired plant Misamis Oriental. She could only do that if her underlings are more willing to completely lose their real honor and clean conscience than lose their jobs and their “honorable” titles. Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!

.....So pathetic, isn’t it? How can we tell these hostages to escape?

(Other proposed resolutions and the like shall be uploaded here as soon as we are able to after receiving them. Comments on them shall also be promptly uploaded. Please send your comments to wedphils@yahoo.com.)