Press Release
November 5, 2009

Pia: Realignments needed in 2010 budget to fund climate change programs

Key realignments must be made in the proposed P1.541-trillion national budget for 2010 to finance pro-environment laws and programs to help mitigate the effects of disasters brought about by climate change, Senator Pia S. Cayetano said today.

"The destruction from recent typhoons should serve as an eye opener to our people and more importantly, our government, about how decades of neglecting the environment will eventually haunt us back with even more calamities, lost lives and property," she stressed.

Cayetano, an environmentalist and Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Social Justice, noted how new appropriations for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) had been slashed by P2.2 billion from P12.9 billion this year to only P10.7 billion under next year's proposed budget.

The budget cut will affect, among others, existing programs under the Office of the Secretary including watershed rehabilitation, cadastral survey and biodiversity conservation. Allocation for capital outlay will also be reduced for forest restoration and rehabilitation, watershed management and acquisition of modern equipment for pollution monitoring and geo-hazard mapping.

"The Senate should move to restore allocations for the DENR on these crucial programs. As lessons from Ondoy and Pepeng have taught us, investments for disaster preparedness will prove to be cheaper in the long run compared to paying for the cost of destruction caused by calamities later on."

Another item that should be prioritized in the proposed budget is the relocation of more than half a million informal settlers living near and around waterways in Metro Manila. She said the government would need P3.2 billion annually in the next ten years to build some 22,689 social housing units to accommodate 545,000 households along waterways.

Cayetano based the figure on a report submitted last month by the Metro Manila Development Authority to the Supreme Court in compliance with the high court's order for government to clean up Manila Bay.

Investments must also be made in other climate change initiatives, including sustainable agriculture, fisheries and forestry, renewable energy projects, as well as financing several landmark environmental laws, including the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, Clean Water Act of 2004, and Clean Air Act of 1999.

"It's a shame how these three landmark laws have been largely unimplemented either due to lack of political will, or lack of funds, or both," she lamented.

The lady senator vowed to work for the realignment of the 2010 budget for disaster-mitigation measures when the Senate takes on the general appropriations bill when session resumes next week.

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