PIA Dispatch (21 May 2010)

PGMA’s Coral Triangle Initiative lauded anew

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) was singled out by World Wildlife Fund president Jose Maria Lorenzo Tan as an outstanding regional master plan that embraces stakeholder and participative processes as essential building blocks.
“Democracy is its foundation,” Tan said.
Tan was among several speakers in today’s testimonial lunch and retro-seminar on key accomplishments on environmental governance held at the Manila Hotel. Participants were from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the different bureaus of DENR, people’s organizations and non-government organizations (NGOs) involved in the environment sector and multilateral funding institutions.
Tan said the Coral Triangle Initiative is one “visionary program that pushes us beyond science, towards sustainability, at meaningful scale.”
“In the spirit of accountability, it reminds us that we must make a difference in the quality of people’s lives,” he said.
CTI, according to Tan is different in that it recognizes that governance is a shared responsibility of government and civil society. It opens the door, he said, to private sector investment and its key characteristic is the formula for sustainable revenues designed to deliver quantifiable economic, social and environmental benefit for the long term. “That is crucial,” he stressed.”
More importantly, according to Tan, CTI embraces the reality of climate change. In that sense, it anticipates a climate-defined future, defining the framework for conservation and management of the human footprint for decades to come, he said.
Tan spoke of the numerous unresolved environmental challenges which can’t be effectively managed by a single administration.
“These are land use, forestry and watershed, trans-boundary collaboration, infrastructure and population, which are “Solomonic tasks,” Tan explained.
“Like all marriages, environmental governance is a work in progress. As long as both parties remain committed to keep working at it, day to day, year to year, many things remain possible,” he said.
“In the Coral Trial Initiative, the Arroyo government has helped create a platform for hope. It is up to us now to make it happen,” Tan said.
Last month, President Arroyo also received the Teddy Roosevelt International Conservation Award from the prestigious Washington DC-based donor group, International Conservation Caucus Foundation (ICCF), for her CTI initiatives.
Another speaker, Nely Alzula, president of the Kapit Bisig Farmers Association Inc. of Barangay Sta. Catalina, Atimonan, Quezon thanked the President and the DENR for providing rural folks with the proper implements to protect the watersheds and other natural resources that have been prone to abuse by people.


Poll fraud probe in Congress won’t affect transition process

Preparations for the smooth transition of power to the next administration will not be affected by reported moves in Congress to reschedule the proclamation of the next president and vice president in deference to committee investigation into reports of alleged electronic fraud in the May 10 polls.
Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Charito Planas said that Malacañang is “ready and just waiting” for the next administration even as it recognizes the fact that only Congress has the power to proclaim the incoming president and vice president.
“The Arroyo administration is ready and prepared to receive, and so it is up to the incoming president and vice president to name their counterparts who will sit down with us for the transition,” Planas said.
The Senate and House of Representatives have reportedly agreed to move the proclamation of winning candidates for president and vice president from the earlier reported date of June 4, possibly to June 30, in deference to the ongoing committee inquiry into allegations of electronic fraud.
Under the Constitution, President Arroyo’s successor has to take the oath of office at noon of June 30.
Planas said the Palace respects the decision of Congress, being an independent and co-equal power of the executive branch of the government, adding “they have their reasons.”
Last Wednesday (May 19), Malacañang assured that government agencies have already created their respective Agency Transition Cooperation Team (ATCT) that will draft and submit their organizational transition reports and functional transition reports to the Presidential Transition Cooperation Team (PTCT).
The PTCT is scheduled today to conduct a planning session to formulate the transition blueprint which will be presented during the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday May 25


DENR, mining industry cite PGMA’s fruitful environmental policies

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was publicly conferred today the “Minero” Award, a significant tribute from the private mining sector, during a ceremony in Manila where she also received special honors for her policy initiatives that produced milestones and major achievements in environmental governance.
At the Testimonial Lunch and Retro Seminar on Key Accomplishments on Environmental Governance organized by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) at the Manila Hotel, the President was singularly cited for her effort in revitalizing the Philippine mining industry.
The Minero award was the latest gesture from the mining sector in recognizing the President’s role in the hefty growth of the industry that has enjoyed massive investments inflow since 2004.
In an earlier event this year in Malacañang, Benjamin Philip Romualdez president of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, also credited President Arroyo with the improved mining industry outlook that he said was expected to sustain its double digit growth for the year.
Romualdez said during the Presidential Mineral Industry Environmental Award (PMIEA) last February that the President’s decisions and policies have helped in the unprecedented growth and sustainability of the industry.
During the Manila Hotel affair, DENR Secretary Horace Ramos gave the President a copy of the Environmental Legacy Brochure Part 1 wherein the mining sector documented the numerous milestones and achievements of her administration in environmental sustainability.
The Environmental Legacy, a 22-page text and pictorial was also distributed to participants and industry stakeholders at the Manila Hotel event.
In other environmental concerns, Ramos cited in his message that the Arroyo administration has reforested 244,022 hectares which was supported by an outlay in 2009 of P1.5 billion, which Ramos said was “the biggest in the annals of Philippine forestry.”
“We have established 25 protected areas, encompassing 1 million hectares in all, raising the total to 106 areas and 3.46 million hectares,” Ramos said.
“We have reduced the total suspended particulates in Metro Manila’s air from 162 micrograms per normal cubic meter down to 134; We have set up 6,750 materials recovery facilities for 7,680 barangays and raised the number of sanitary landfills to 30 with 42 more under construction—dramatically improving the capacity of our solid waste management,” Ramos added.
The Arroyo administration, the DENR chief said, has also completed the geo-hazard assessment of 91 percent of our cities and municipalities and produced 835 geo-hazard maps covering 86 percent of the archipelago.
“And we have enacted more environmental laws in the last 10 years than in any other decade of our history,” Ramos added.
“These undertakings—along with other regular activities enacted as the lead agency in implementing the Green Philippines Program—emphasize our comprehensive, integrated and sustainable approach to our constitutional mandate of advancing the right of every Filipino toward a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature,” Ramos stated.
He said the 22,000-strong DENR workforce is humbled that these (achievements in environmental governance) have not gone unnoticed by the international community, as evidenced by the most recent recognition of President Arroyo’s innovative leadership in protecting oceans and preserving biodiversity in the Coral Triangle.”
Ramos said that the environmental legacy that is being passed on to the next administration and to future generations “exists all around us--- in our forests, watersheds, biodiversity and other natural treasures.”
“Beyond taking pride in this legacy, let us value, protect and building upon it,” Ramos said.
According to published studies, the Philippines is one of the world's highly mineralized countries, with untapped mineral wealth estimated at more than $840 billion. But it only begun to make good in the mining sector after 2004 when the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the 1995 Mining Act, thereby allowing up to 100 percent foreign-owned companies to invest in large-scale exploration, development, and utilization of minerals, oil, and gas.


Geriatric health center part of PGMA legacy

The country’s first-ever National Center for Geriatric Health (NCGH) is now providing specialized services for the elderly many of them belonging to the marginalized sector.
Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Charito Planas said this is part of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s social safety net and health services program to attend to the special needs of the senior citizens who comprise 6 to 7 percent of the populace.
In a media briefing in Malacañang, Planas said the center will further promote geriatric health care as well as push the country’s medical tourism industry.
Last Sunday, Planas said the President led the blessing and soft opening of the Dr. Eva Macaraeg-Macapagal National Center for Geriatric Health (formerly Singian Hospital) along General Solano Street in Malacañang, Manila.
NCGH chief Dr. Miguel Ramos Jr., who is also president of the Philippine Society of Geriatric Medicine, said the center is now manned by a group of doctors, nurses, therapists, caregivers and other personnel with varied specialization in geriatric care.
At present, Ramos said they provide outpatient, day-care and wellness services including social, education and health programs for the elderly.
Later on, Ramos said the center will provide rehabilitation and in-patient program in the 50-bed capacity center.
This, he added, includes a home-care program where sick elderly patients get medical care right in their residences.
Ramos said a respite care program will also be provided wherein elderly patients will be temporarily housed at the center to provide a short respite for their caregivers.
He said the center caters primarily to the marginalized sector and will pioneer a synchronized role in developing national geriatric development programs.
Ramos said they are also planning in establishing a school at the center that will offer post-graduate training for geriatric health care providers.
He said they are hoping for the enactment of House Bill No. 6245 that will provide state support to the Dr. Eva Macaraeg-Macapagal National Center for Geriatric Health (NCGH) and ensure the sustainability of its operations.
As part of providing social safety nets for the elderly, the President signed last February Republic Act No. 9994 expanding the benefits and privileges of senior citizens that include the expanded coverage of the list of goods and services entitled to the 20 percent discount and exemption from the 12 percent value-added tax VAT


Responding to Climate Change a necessity, says PGMA

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today stressed that development and economic growth must be alongside environment protection.
In her message at the Lions Club 61st Multiple District Convention this morning at the Araneta Coliseum, the President said the theme of the Convention “Move to grow: Responding to Global Climate Change,” is very timely as climate change has become the most pressing issue not only in the country but the whole world.
“Responding to climate change is not an option but a necessity because we are an archipelago,” she said.
The Philippines, according to the Chief Executive is not a climate change maker but a climate change taker since the country’s carbon emission is only 1.6 tons compared to other countries that emit six tons annually.
The country, she further explained is a climate taker because of its geographical location—the western Pacific, where typhoons come from.
The President said all the typhoons that enter Asia enter the Philippines first with full force and fury.
“That is why in Asia, the Philippines is one of the top most vulnerable countries and in the world we are the number nine most vulnerable country to natural disasters,” she said.
Stressing the need to protect the environment, the President said: “We have a moral obligation to the next generations to protect the environment and to mitigate climate change brought not by us but by the abuse of the entire humanity.”
Thus, she said when she became President her priorities included environment protection while lifting the lives of the poor. This can be gleaned from her 10-point pro-poor agenda—BEAT THE ODDS.
Through the Green Philippines program, the President said “we can have a growing economy and we can have a green growing economy—and fighting the effects of climate change.”
“There must be a healthy balance between development and conservation,” she said. The Arroyo administration, she added, came up with landmark environment protection laws such as the Biofuels Act, Renewable Energy Act as well as the creation of a Climate Change Commission among others.
The President said adaptation and mitigation were the important means of the Arroyo administration in fighting climate change or reducing risks and reducing the effects of climate change.
Thus, she urged businesses to be environment-friendly by building environment-friendly buildings with less use of aircon, and buildings with garden roofs.
In agriculture, she said rain water must be saved for irrigation purposes during dry season and for risk reduction, vulnerable residents in risk areas must be relocated.