8/8/2019 opening statement environment meeting aug 18

1/4

Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the first meeting of

your Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. Let me

recognize the presence of Senator

There are _______ bills and ______ resolutions referred to the

Committee which we shall classify and prioritize. We hope to

address all of them.

Today, we will start a period of stock-taking to find out the

real state of our environment throughout the expanse of ourarchipelago. We shall also want to know how much of our natural

resources remain for utilization, conservation and protection to

enable coming Filipino generations to enjoy them well into the

future. President Aquino had expressed having a National Land

Use law approved during his incumbency, and I surmise, to be

signed by him before his next SONA.

Your Committee would also want an inventory of the good

practices that we must implement at all levels of government so

that the Philippines would contribute to a better state of the

planet Earth. Like all Filipinos, I want to see an end to the list of

environmental horrors where the name of the Philippines always

lands at the top, such as : dirtiest rivers, tallest garbage dumps,

most denuded forests, dirtiest air, worst mine spills and many

others.

8/8/2019 opening statement environment meeting aug 18

2/4

Two weeks ago, the Senate Economic Planning Office (SEPO)

recommended for the environment sector the passage of laws on

National Land Use Policy and Water Resources Management. The

SEPO also categorized the modernization of PAGASA under the

environment. They recommend supporting it as localized weather

patterns and climate change affect the capacity of our resources

to provide food and water security.

And in so addressing the environment and natural resource

issues, I also hope that workers and professionals in theenvironment and natural resource sector will not find themselves

in danger just because they are doing their jobs. On this day also,

I am reminded that on my first year as Senator, a friend had died,

he was killed. He was an environmentalist. Also, that goes for the

volunteers and deputized personnel in the ground such as the

Bantay Dagat and Gubat, Bantay Tsimneya, Tambutso and Sunog

Basura. We also need to assess if we have to restructure them to

make them more effective, or know if they are effective at all as

they are. I am reminded that despite the deputization and

creation of various task forces, EDSA air remains heavily polluted.

In this session, we also hope to be provided information that

will guide us if the environment mandate is better separated from

the natural resource utilization mandate of the DENR. Bills to that

effect will also be tackled. They are important also in light of the

priority given to the National Land Use Policy. The matter of

8/8/2019 opening statement environment meeting aug 18

3/4

creating the NLUP similarly will have to start with the status of

land classification. Where are we now in that respect? Are the

figures presented for the Alienable and Disposable Land, Total

forest Land (Unclassified forest land and classified public forest)

still accurate?

Likewise, we want to know whether of the classified public

forest (forest reserves, established timberland, national parks,

game refuge and bird sanctuaries & wilderness areas, military

and naval reservation, civil reservation, fishpond development)remains as such. What are their actual uses today?

This also introduces the discussion on what areas need

rehabilitation to return them to their previous healthy state, or if

it is possible at all. Then also we have to ask why our environment

laws are violated, with impunity, by small and big entities who we

know comply with environmental laws in other countries,

foremost of these are the mining companies. Do we need

stringent laws or heavier penalties?

And very important is to know what places are safe for

human settlements especially in this age of disasters exacerbated

by climate change. Let us see if Sustainable Development and

other terms on which tons of books have been written are doable

or will just be slogans repeated time and again.

8/8/2019 opening statement environment meeting aug 18

4/4

After the stock-taking in this Briefing to be presented by the

Department of Environment and Natural Resources, we shall

come up with the Legislative agenda that we hope to accomplish

during the Fifteenth Congress.