An unenviable task

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga probably has one of the most unenviable Cabinet positions in the Marcos administration.

Hers is a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” task of regulating the use of our country’s natural resources for our development and at the same time ensuring the protection of those resources and the environment.

Any action she takes is subject to question and dispute by those seeking to utilize the resources and those trying to preserve or conserve the environment due to the disturbance or displacement caused by the extraction or development activity.

Accusations and condemnation are quickly hurled in her direction without first fully knowing the facts, as well as the law that the decision is based on. Likewise, attempts at a logical explanation are drowned out by emotional and vociferous protestations.

And the sad part of it all is that some of the detractors are also the violators themselves who muddle the issue to hide or minimize their own culpability.

Of course, part of the distrust stems from previous actions of some bad actors in the DENR and in government in general, Secretary Loyzaga admits.

Our country’s experience has regularly shown that anomalies and malfeasance are not properly addressed and rectified, hence the distrust from one head to the next occupant of the agency.

Her guiding principle as the DENR head, she reveals, is “to measure what you treasure. The natural resources of the country should deliver a national dividend. We cannot have it co-opted by private commercial interests or NGO groups or advocates. It is a national asset and it must deliver a national dividend.”

Sec. Loyzaga is an academician who bases her actions on scientific and factual data. Her whole career has been spent mostly in the field of science, holding the position of executive director of the Manila Observatory from 2007 to 2016 while at the same time also being a trustee of the Ateneo de Manila University.

Within that same time frame, Secretary Loyzaga was also appointed to the UNESCO National Commission’s Committee on Science and Technology and to the Department of Science and Technology Committee on Space Technology Applications where she worked with the team that conceptualized the Philippine Space Agency.

She has been working in the disaster risk reduction space for the past 20 years. In 2013, she was recognized by the Armed Forces of the Philippines for her contributions to the Philippine military’s disaster response operations during Super Typhoon Yolanda.

The current DENR chief also headed the National Resilience Council, a science and technology-based public-private partnership. Her numerous affiliations and previous appointments to head international commissions all attest to her reliance on science and factual data gathering to guide her decision-making.

With her solid credentials and experience, her detractors instead resort to personal attacks and unproven accusations.

Those who are maligning the current DENR head also fail to understand legal precedents in ownership, as well prior rights as provided by law for certain lands in areas that have been enrolled under the 2018 Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act (ENIPAS).

Secretary Loyzaga points out that certain infirmities in the law have now been exposed in the case of the Chocolate Hills’ Captain’s Peak and Mt. Apo ENIPAS enrollment that some NGOs and environmental groups now accuse the DENR of not properly protecting.

She explains that in the case of the Chocolate Hills Captain’s Peak Resort, some portions of the Bohol landmark, around 13,500 hectares, are actually classified as “alienable and disposable” prior to the enactment of the ENIPAS in 2018.

What should have been done prior to the passage of the ENIPAS, the DENR Secretary said, was to have done a comprehensive inventory of land classification and uses, plus titles if any. The Chocolate Hills case, she cites, has now “tested the law against reality. Is it really implementable? If we cannot implement it…then modify it. That’s the way laws are supposed to be.”

Similarly, she also cited the case of Mt. Apo which has also been classified as a protected area under the 2018 ENIPAS. Similar to the Chocolate Hills case, Secretary Loyzaga said, Kapatagan was declared a political unit way back in the 1970s and there are several people and barangays there now. “What are we supposed to do now, erase them?”

One especially contentious case plaguing the DENR Secretary is the Masungi Reserve that is now the subject of a congressional hearing.

Although she did not want to discuss the issue while Congress is still conducting its own investigation, Secretary Loyzaga is standing firm on the DENR’s position that the dispute is a “legal and compliance issue” and that “there is only one law, and everyone has to follow that law whether you are a small enterprise in Siargao or in Chocolate Hills, or the foundation. There is a process to follow and it should be applied equally.”

In the case of Siargao, which is a protected landscape and seascape, the DENR had identified 1,100 enterprises operating in the area, with about 900 having no environmental clearance certificate. Fortunately, the DENR was able to implement a mobile system that has allowed at least 500 of the enterprises to secure their ECCs.

Secretary Loyzaga laments the fact that that most do not realize the enormity of the DENR’s responsibility over our resources which covers 30 million hectares of landmass, 15 million of which are classified as forests; seven million hectares of protected terrestrial and marine, with only a limited budget of P25 billion, which is about 0.5 percent of the more than P5 trillion budget allocated for infrastructure development.

Now, who would really envy the DENR’s Secretary’s position?