DENR inks deal for Marikina River rehab

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has signed a five-year agreement with the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and three private firms for the rehabilitation of the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape (UMRBPL).

The project will be undertaken under the government’s Expanded National Greening Program (ENGP).

Under the memorandum of agreement signed on March 28, the GSIS, D.M. Consunji Inc. (DMCI), Toyota-Oben Group of Dealers (TOGD) and Meralco Industrial Engineering Services Corp. (MIESCOR)will be partners of the DENR Calabarzon office in rehabilitating 70 hectares of the UMRBPL.

Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer for Rizal Ramil Limpiada said the ENGP-graduated areas “need assistance from government institutions and private sector partners.”

“These areas were turned over to the DENR by the people’s organizations and local government units after fulfilling their three-year site development contracts to raise tree plantations,” Limpiada said.

The four sites covered by the agreement are located in Sitio San Ysiro, Barangay San Jose in Antipolo City, which the DENR previously set aside for the “Adopt-a-Site” program under a public-private-partnership  scheme.

Launched in 2011 through Executive Order 26, the six-year National Greening Program aims to reforest 1.5 million hectares of denuded forestland. It was extended until 2028 under EO 193 – now known as the ENGP – for the continuation of reforestation efforts in the country’s remaining degraded forestland.

The GSIS committed to provide funding for the maintenance and protection of 56 hectares within a 1,000-hectare NGP tree plantation while MIESCOR will adopt a one-hectare area within a 1,000-hectare ENGP plantation site.

DMCI and TOGD adopted 10 and three hectares, respectively, within a 250-hectare NGP graduated site.

The DENR partners committed to initially shell out P3.1 million, of which P2.01 million will come from the GSIS.