Senator Cynthia Villar on Thursday chided the officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) over the small budget allocation for the management of protected areas across the country.
She told the DENR officials to realign the budget of the National Greening Program (NGP) to augment the budget for the protected areas, which only got P1.2 billion for 2022.
“‘Di ba pinag-usapan na namin ni Sec. [Roy] Cimatu na yung NGP dadalhin dyan sa protected area para hindi na nakukuwestyon ng Senate kasi palagi yang kina-cut ng Senate kasi hindi nila malaman kung saan niyo dinadala yang NGP na yan,” Villar said at a Senate budget hearing.
(I already discussed that with Sec. Cimatu. Reallocate the NGP funding to the protected areas so that it won’t be questioned by the Senate because there is always a proposal to cut that in the Senate because they don’t know where the funds are going.)
According to Villar, there are 107 legislated protected areas (PAs) consisting of 4.4 million hectares while the proclaimed PAs measure around 1.1 million hectares. The rest are classified as initial components covering 2.2 million hectares.
“Ito yung kailangan i-protect, just [by] the figure, masyadong maliit. Samantalang iyun yung dineclare natin by legislation at saka presidential proclamation na dapat i-protect talaga e di ba dapat malaking budget ng DENR pumunta doon?” she said.
(This is what you need to protect, just by the figure, you can see that this is a meager allocation. Shouldn’t the DENR allocate higher funding for those that were declared by legislation and presidential proclamation as protected areas?)
“Sinabi ko na yan sa kanila, di pa rin nila binago budget nila.”
(I already told them about this concern but they did not change their proposed budget.)
In response, Cimatu explained that a third of the P3.6-billion budget for the NGP would go to the protected areas.
But his justification was not accepted by Villar as she pointed out that the DENR has a separate allocation for the protected areas.
“Paano magiging goes to the protected areas, nilagay mo sa protected areas P1.2 billion e kasama doon yung overhead…kasama yung mga empleyado, maglilinis, magtatanim,” she said.
(How come that a part will go to the protected areas? You have allocated only P1.2 billion for the protected areas which included the overhead or the funding for the employees, the workers, and the others.)
“Sana binigay mo na yung greening na yun sa protected areas nang lumaki yung budget ng protected…yun lang ang gusto ko,” she added.
(You should have allocated the budget for greening to the protected areas to increase its funding. That’s what I wanted to happen.)
In November last year, Senator Panfilo Lacson questioned the implementation of the NGP after Typhoon Ulysses caused flooding in low-lying areas across the country. — VBL, GMA News
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