Press Release
December 6, 2007

ANGARA IDENTIFIES PRIORITY PROJECTS OF DENR

"There is no substantial change in the DENR budget, what we tried to do is to re-channel the spending towards certain objectives that we want to achieve," said Senator Edgardo J. Angara, chair of the Senate Subcommittee C on Finance.

A big portion of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)'s proposed budget for 2008 will be spent on major projects such as forest and watershed protection, maritime and coastal resource management, education on carbon trading, and protection of our continental shelf.

"We tried to allocate some money for coastal resources management and for the first time, we allocated budget for education and information about carbon trading. Very little is known about carbon trading, the farmers who have contributed in the reduction of carbon emissions should legitimately claim their credit," he stressed.

"We also set aside budget for the delineation of our continental shelf which is a very rich source of crude oil and gas. This is the first time that we're going to allocate funds for our continental shelves. We're going to spend P380 million to come up with geologic evidences to prove our rights over parts of the oil-rich Kalayaan Group of Islands (KIG) or the Spratlys," he pointed out.

This project is expected to be completed before the 2009 deadline set by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) for claimant-countries to prove their claims.

"It is important that we meet this deadline because if we don't, that will be deemed an open frontier and anyone can just come in and explore for gas and oil and we can no longer claim that it's part of our territorial sea," Angara said.

"With the joint efforts of the DENR, the Department of Energy, the UP Institute of Geology, the Bureau of Mines, the Bureau of Fisheries and the army of private consultants, they will be able to do it."

There are three specific areas that the DENR will have to map in detail - the Scarborough off Zambales, the Kalayaan off Palawan , and the Benham Rise off Isabela, east of Cagayan.

He also underscored the need to draft a national policy on climate change. "I think it takes more than the DENR to do that because if it is going to be a national effort, it shall involve the DENR, the Energy department, and every agency including the infrastructure agencies that produce carbon.

He urged the DENR to disseminate information and conduct educational awareness campaigns on climate change and encourage everybody to do their part in mitigating its adverse effects.

He also called for the immediate passage of the Renewable Energy Bill. "Sure, we are not the biggest contributor to global warming, but, certainly, because we have abundant natural resources of green energy like wind, solar, water, waste, we need a concerted effort on that."

The department is pursuing traditional reforestation, carbon clean-up development mechanism project, and special information campaign on climate change.

Part of DENR's budget will be devoted for projects like river protection, forest delineation, and seedling banks. He said that all interested parties in planting forest trees will have access to those provincial nursery seedling banks provided they will pay for it to keep it self-sustaining.

News Latest News Feed