DENR 8 hosted national budget reprogramming workshop 2008

By PURIFICACION S. DALOOS
March 8, 2008

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte  –  Almost two hundred participants coming from all regional offices of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in the country have converged at the Leyte Park Hotel in Tacloban City on February 28 to March 1, 2008, to formulate the fiscal year 2008 work and financial plan.

As hosts of the significant affair, Regional Executive Director Alfredo S. Pascual of DENR-8 together with Tacloban City local government Executive Assistant Bernardita B. Valenzuela as representative of Mayor Alfred Romualdez, warmly welcomed the participant s from all over the country.  In his welcome address, RED Pascual expressed that it was the first time that the DENR Region 8 hosted a national budget reprogramming workshop, and the DENR 8 takes pride in hosting such workshop and wished that the participants will enjoy the simple amenities Tacloban City can offer.

Undersecretaries Demetrio L. Ignacio of the Policy and Planning Office; Teresita Samson Castillo of the Special Projects/Social Mobilization; and Manuel D. Gerochi of the Staff Bureaus as well as the respective Bureau Directors from the DENR Central Office provided the guidance to the participants in coming up with their respective outputs.

USEC Manuel Gerochi urged the participants to anchor their planning work on public service.  Programs of the different sectors of the DENR which are so dynamic should be synchronized in order to come up with a responsive and efficient work and financial plan that can serve the mandate of the DENR.  USEC Gerochi disclosed that Secretary Jose L. Atienza’s leadership currently focuses on restructuring programs and evaluation of systems to bring out reforms in administrative processes, policies and operational practices and put these in a framework necessary in coming up with a responsive long term plan.

DENR’S priority thrusts for the year include among others: poverty reduction and hunger mitigation to be implemented through the Department’s Community Based Forest Management Program including agro forestry development and land disposition program for agricultural, residential, school sites and industrial purposes; socio economic development through the mining industry revitalization program,  industrial tree plantation, clean waterways program, coastal management program and extended continental shelf; biodiversity conservation through the promotion of ecotourism and implementation of biological diversity conservation programs and monitoring of wetlands; mitigation of the effects/impact of climate change through the planting of 40 million seedlings on denuded and degraded areas,  improvement of air quality through intensified law enforcement and monitoring, geohazard mapping and determination of carrying capacity of highly critical areas, vulnerability assessment on climate change impact and effective rehabilitation technology for degraded ecosystems.