Eastern Visayas surpasses 2011 National Greening Program target

By Philippine Information Agency (PIA 8)
December 22, 2011

TACLOBAN CITY  –  Eastern Visayas has more than 100 percent accomplishment for this year’s target under the National Greening Program (NGP).

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Region 8 reported this to President Benigno Simeon Aquino III through DENR Secretary Ramon Paje.

DENR 8 was given a 2011 target of 4,052,500 seedlings for production and 8,105 hectares for planting with indigenous tree species under the NGP.  Acting Regional Executive Director Manolito D. Ragub disclosed that the targeted area for planting and the seedlings for production were 100% accomplished by the DENR’s field offices using the regular budget allocation.

Excess accomplishment resulted from the DENR’s social mobilization strategy wherein different partners from various sectors were made to plant trees under the program.  The convergence initiative of the Environment, Agriculture and Agrarian Reform Departments posted an accomplishment of 83% by producing 70,000 seedlings out of the target of 84,000 seedlings.

The Convergence has also planted 50 hectares out of its target of 60 hectares posting an 83% accomplishment.

Under the Congressional Initiative, 1,260 hectares were planted out of the 1,160 hectares target or a 108% accomplishment, while 625,000 seedlings were produced out of the 605,000 target or a 103% accomplishment.

Even without a set target, the German Technical Cooperation (GIZ), other government agencies, people’s organizations, State Universities and Colleges and the Energy Development Corporation’s BINHI Program produced a total of 472,971 seedlings and planted a total of 804.31 hectares, OIC RED Ragub informed.

Pursuant to Executive Order No. 26 of President Aquino, the National Greening Program is a program seeking to “plant some 1.5 billion trees covering about 1.5 million hectares for a period of 6 years from 2011 to 2016, in lands of the public domain.  This has quad goals of poverty reduction, food security, biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation and adaptation.  Key partners as stipulated in the said Executive Order are: DA, DAR, DENR, DepEd, CHED, DSWD, DBM, DILG, LGUs, DOH, DPWH, DOTC, DND, DOST, DOJ, NCIP.  Social mobilization strategy is however adopted by the DENR to encourage partners from all sectors of society to join the program.

Meanwhile, Ms. Purificacion Daloos, DENR Regional Public Affairs Officer, informed that field officers of the DENR are now required to first appear before a notary public attorney to swear on the correctness of their accomplishment reports before submitting them to the DENR’s head office in Quezon City.

This after DENR Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje has ordered the notarization of all reports submitted by his 16 DENR regional executive directors and other DENR field officers playing key roles in the implementation of the National Greening Program (NGP) in an apparent move to remove doubts on the veracity of NGP reports submitted to his office.

“The intention is also to raise the agency’s competence in providing accurate reports to our people and the President,” explained Paje, adding that the reports will in turn be submitted to the Commission on Audit (COA) for validation.