Last week, the Environment Summit was held in Southern Leyte, where Philippine government agencies and officials discussed how best to balance development and environmental protection. The best part is the Department of Environment and Natural Resources got such a well-deserved chewing-out from Representative Roger Mercado. This is the agency that is supposed to be protecting the Philippines’ natural resources, and apparently,
the summit took a turn for the worse as it became an occasion to put to task the DENR for failing to present a functional program on tree-planting while illegal — and even legal, that is, with permit — cutting of choice trees went on.
“You have no program on re-planting or rehabilitation of forest trees but you continue to give cutting permits?,” Cong. Mercado asked, apparently peeved on learning that the DENR has no budget for massive tree-planting.
So much for their one-million-trees-all-over-the-Philippines project. The issuing of cutting permits certainly doesn’t show a strong commitment to a cause they allegedly support.
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