Science-led DENR

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is set to undergo a transformation under its Secretary, Antonia “Toni” Yulo-Loyzaga, who wants the department to move away from its previous mandate of being a “regulatory” body to an agency that is science-led and which will focus more on “protection, enhancement, preservation, rehabilitation and regeneration of the environment.”

She said such a mandate would lead to a “reorganizational  transformation” that “needs to actually take place,” where in the past “people are used to, perhaps, the more punitive and  the more regulatory” agency, but this time around would be more “science-based and with more emphasis on what we need to do to actually maintain from ridge to reef our ecosystems so that they can support community life, business, and all the other activities that are really dependent on the use of natural resources.”

Loyzaga formally sat down with a group of business editors and writers Tuesday to outline some of her views regarding her department, and impressed all of us with her careful and intelligent approach to tackling and formulating policies that will govern the various sectors that her department has jurisdiction over  – from the extractive sector to the renewables sector --  that also overlap with the Department of Energy, climate and the environment, water resources  – that will also overlap with the still to be created Department of Water, as well as dealing with a menagerie of  abandoned and confiscated wildlife!

The DENR also manages the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center, which has amassed a “small” collection of animals that were either confiscated from illegal smugglers or abandoned by illegal collectors and include a pair of tigers.

^{‘We need minerals’}

The extractive industries sector is excited that Secretary Loyzaga acknowledges the practical need to resume the extraction of vital minerals and metallurgical resources that our economy needs, even as she carefully reviews existing policies and draws up the new framework that will govern the sector moving forward during her tenure.

“At this point we need to accept that we need minerals... we need minerals. Everything that we use on a daily basis comes from something that has to be extracted,” she said.

The DENR Secretary expressed the need for government to map out and confirm that the resources are there and determine if they can be sustainably extracted. She also stressed the need for government to resume exploration, noting that such activity has stopped, and that the private sector has that ability to track such resources, which the government should likewise be able to do.

However, Loyzaga continues to review past policies governing the extraction of resources such as coal, oil, minerals and metallurgical resources, and is still in the process of revising and improving the policy framework, as well as holding consultations with all stakeholders, that would govern such activities before releasing the new rules and  guidelines that will be followed moving forward.

She could, thus, only say that they would come out with the new policy framework “soon” that would allow the private sector to resume or invest in new exploration, mining and renewable energy activities.

On the controversial adoption of open pit mining, Loyzaga avoided an all out endorsement, but pointed out that new technology and  processes are now available and that there is greater emphasis on mitigation, rehabilitation and regeneration that has been used and accepted by other countries that engage in extractive industries.

She also astutely shut down claims that rehabilitation has not been a hallmark of the Philippine mining sector, citing for instance the rehabilitation done in Rio Tuba,  and more importantly that any activity in the extractive sector, by its very nature, will not result in something that has been disturbed will ever be exactly the same even with restoration or rehabilitation. But she does see the possibility of seeking compensation by investment.

Also a priority for Loyzaga are weather and climate change issues that have now gained more urgency globally, as different parts of the world now experience the damage wrought by climate disasters. DENR Undersecretary Carlo Primo “CP” David, whom she has worked with in the past, is helping her on those issues.

Loyzaga’s approach to her post stems from her professional background, having been the executive director of the Manila Observatory for nine years, from 2007 to 2016, even though her educational background is really in political science.

Grade school classmates

It was actually a reunion of sorts for Secretary Loyzaga, Grace Magno,  VP for corporate marketing of SM Supermalls, and myself last Tuesday, as we were all grade school classmates at Assumption Convent – Herran (ages ago), with both Grace and me vouching for Loyzaga’s good girl reputation in grade school and among the more diligent students...along with another former classmate, Sen. Loren Legarda.

It was also a good time to learn about that not-so romantic, but actually “boring” (as Toni herself describes it)  courtship of Toni by Chito Loyzaga ...because, of course, we had to ask about it...wink...wink.

We wanted to know how the then popular college hearthrob athlete/ basketballer Chito won over Toni...not as it turns out by sweeping her off her feet, but rather a straight forward request by Chito for her to be his girlfriend. It turns out that she had known Chito for quite some time as he was a friend of her brother. She further reveals that Chito is  “methodical and constant” and “plays by the book,” as proven by his professional basketball career with the still popular Barangay Ginebra team.

Their union produced two girls and a boy, Joaquin, who is her “Asec, Anak ng Secretary” and executive assistant at the DENR, but who, unfortunately, is not into basketball but definitely inherited the good looks of his father.

Juan Luna at the Ayala Museum

Was fortunate enough to view Juan Luna’s long-lost painting, “Hymen, o Hymenee,” which won a bronze medal at the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, France,  at the Ayala Museum last week. It is a beautiful work of art that makes one proud that a Filipino artist had the talent to create such a masterful painting that is recognized internationally.

It was also a good time to review Juan Luna’s colorful and controversial life, which of course, was glossed over in the beautiful audio-visual presentation that accompanied the exhibit, but reawakened my interest in the controversial artist.

It was also pleasant to reacquaint myself with the Ayala Museum that I had visited years ago when it relocated in the now commercial Greenbelt mall. I was again awed by the museum’s gold exhibit, and pleased with its new exhibits on textiles and ceramics and pottery.

I urge those who have not seen the exhibit to go visit the Ayala Museum and appreciate a pleasant morning or afternoon learning about Filipino art and heritage before or after a shopping and eating spree at the mall.