Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Arroyo certifies bill creating Mindanao body

In her bill, Legarda said in her explanatory note that “Mindanao’s unique socioeconomic and peace issues call for an agency that goes beyond regional paradigm to spearhead and integrate peace-and-development efforts at a Mindanao-wide perspective.”

Medco said that, so far, Mindanao “continues to lag behind in terms of economic growth, poverty and human development.”

Six out of the 10 poorest provinces of the country were in Mindanao, while four of the five provinces that ranked lowest in human development were also located in Mindanao.

“Compared with Luzon and Visayas, Mindanao has the highest percentage of unpaved national roads at 37.81 percent; the lowest in irrigation development at 31.5 percent and the least in terms of farm-to-market roads paved at 19.68 percent,” the Medco said.

Legarda said that while Medco has been doing planning and development work for the past 16 years, “there is a need to strengthen it and make it more permanent through the creation of the Meda, allowing for the prioritization of this development agenda.”

Medco said the bill was awaiting the final report of the joint House committees on Mindanao Affairs and on Government Enterprises and Privatization, which approved the Meda. Their report would be grilled in a plenary discussion that Congress would schedule.

Source: http://businessmirror.com.ph/home/regions/18093-arroyo-certifies-bill-creating-mindanao-body.html

Loren pushes Climate Change Act funding

Senator Loren Legarda pushed yesterday for the inclusion in the 2010 national budget of the much-needed funding for the disaster-risk reduction and climate-change mitigation measures envisioned in the Climate Change Act of 2009.

“A report of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) says that our government agencies have a ‘low capacity to adapt to climate change,’” said Loren.

“That’s the very problem which the Climate Change Act seeks to address, thus the urgency of funding and implementing the salient provisions of this new law whose passage had been hailed by the international community.”

Loren pointed out that since the executive department drafted the proposed budget for next year even before typhoons Ondoy, Pepeng and Santi devastated the country, the funding for disaster-risk reduction and climate-change mitigation may not have been prioritized.

The senator called for a review of the proposed budget, the report for which is already being finalized by the Senate Committee on Finance.

“Powerful typhoons wrought havoc on our country and showed how unprepared we are in dealing with disasters, including in conducting rescue and relief operations. We must resign ourselves to the fact that more powerful calamities are coming our way due to climate change,” said Loren.

“But we must not be caught again with our guards down,” she stressed.

Loren identified the following climate change programs whose funding must be included in next year’s budget:

· Immediate creation of the Climate Change Commission which will coordinate and monitor all of the climate change-related programs and policies of the country;

· Strengthening the capabilities of local government units (LGUs) to deal with disasters by allocating portions of the national budget for the purpose, such as the purchase of pump boats and other rescue equipment;

· Helping the agriculture sector adapt to climate change (e.g. the planting of water-submersible crops and the identification of alternative marketing routes during floods and landslides)

· Ensuring the provision of more efficient health services during disasters, including for the thousands of people who are sheltered in evacuation and relief centers;

· Funding environmental programs and activities like reducing carbon emissions and increasing the country’s forest cover as a way to help in the global effort against climate change

Loren said that on her many visits to relief centers, many evacuees had complained to her of the lack of health services afforded them, making them wonder whether they had survived past calamities only to get sick or, worse, to die in evacuation centers.

“We must think out of the box when it comes to agriculture because the typhoons, floods and other calamities are here to stay. We must pour money to research and development of, say, rice varities that can still be harvested despite being submerged in flood water,” said Loren.

“Our food supply routes must also be given more consideration against being cut so as to avert our experince last month when Pepeng cut the supply of vegetables from Mountain Province.”

Source: http://www.luntiangpilipinas.com.ph/2009/11/loren-pushes-climate-change-act-funding/

Loren, Pia seek budget for climate change

MANILA, Philippines—Senators Loren Legarda and Pia Cayetano Wednesday sought to recast next year’s proposed P1.541-trillion budget to make it more responsive to disaster mitigation and preparedness.

Both senators said deliberations on the General Appropriations Act of 2010, which will resume on Monday, should focus on giving more funds to programs that will help the country cope with the effects of climate change.

The Senate hopes to pass the budget before adjourning for the Christmas break.

Legarda wants funding for the Climate Change Act of 2009, which she authored. Signed into law by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Oct. 23, the act calls for the creation of a Climate Change Commission. It seeks the purchase of more pump boats and other rescue equipment; development of water-submersible crops; and improvement of local area disaster response operations. It also calls for steps to reduce carbon emissions and increase forest cover as risk reduction measures.

Cayetano, on the other hand, called for budget realignments to finance other pro-environment laws and programs.

Cayetano wants to reinstate the P2-billion slash in the proposed budget of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

In a statement, Cayetano, chair of the Senate committee on social justice, noted that the budget of the DENR had been reduced from P12.9 billion this year to only P10.7 billion in 2010.

The budget cut will affect, among others, existing programs such as watershed rehabilitation, cadastral surveys and biodiversity conservation, she said.

Capital outlays for forest restoration and the acquisition of modern equipment for pollution monitoring and geo-hazard mapping will also be affected, Cayetano said.

Cayetano also wants to see money allocated for the relocation of more than half a million squatters living around waterways in Metro Manila.

She said the government would need P3.2 billion annually in the next 10 years to build 22,689 social housing units to accommodate 545,000 households.

Both Legarda and Cayetano said the recent calamities brought on by Tropical Storm “Ondoy” and Typhoons “Pepeng” and “Santi” should serve as eye openers for the people and the government.

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Source: http://www.inquirer.net/propertyguide/aroundtown/view.php?db=1&article=20091105-234285

Loren leads signing of commitment against ‘Deadly Trio’

Senator Loren Legarda conducted an on-site public hearing on the disaster wrought by typhoon Ondoy and launched the 2009 Global Assessment Report (GAR) on Disaster Risk Reduction prepared by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) where it cited three primary reasons that heighten disaster risks from natural calamities, which, in turn, cause poverty in the Philippines to worsen.

The 2009 GAR identified the factors that heighten disasters as poor urban governance, ecosystems decline and the vulnerability of the sources of livelihoods in rural areas.

"The deadly trio of haphazard urban development, ecosystems decline and unstable rural livelihood – individually and in combination – drives disaster risk and provokes catastrophe, especially in poor communities,” said Loren.

Loren’s committee has been holding public hearings at the Senate on the devastations caused by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng. She presided over the on-site public hearing in Marikina at Barangay Nangka along the banks of the Marikina River that was the scene of devastation at the height of Typhoon Ondoy. Some of the victims in the area served as resource persons who shared their experiences during the ordeal. The GAR launch was capped by a signing ceremony where participants pledged their commitment themed "Bagong tugon sa hamon ng panahon” to improve urban governance, enhance rural livelihoods and protect ecosystems.

Last week, Loren also led an inspection of Laguna de Bay and neighboring areas, including Lupang Arenda in Taytay, Rizal, which came under water when the bay overflowed.

Comparing the disaster risk management in Japan, where approximately 22.5 million people are exposed annually to typhoons, Loren said that the estimated annual death toll in the Philippines is almost 17 times greater than that of Japan because of our lack of disaster management systems in the form of early warning systems, awareness and preparation.

She added that poor rural livelihoods, dependent on rain-fed agriculture and on a single main harvest for annual food and income, are highly vulnerable to weather fluctuations and hazards, which can lead to crop or livestock loss. Poor and indebted households have little or no surplus capacity to absorb these losses and to recover from extreme weather events.

“Climate change and disaster risks have become one of the greatest challenges to human development the world faces today. About 70 to 80 per cent of disasters have been climate-related,” she said.

Loren stressed that disaster risks will only be reduced if government successfully addresses the three underlying drivers of risk: poor urban governance ecosystem decline, and vulnerable rural livelihoods.

If these drivers are not addressed, climate change will lead to dramatic increases in disaster risk and associated poverty outcomes in developing countries, she said.

“Dealing with climate change and disaster risks decisively is the key to reducing poverty,” she said.

The hearings being conducted by Loren’s committee seeks to identify the gaps in planning, preparation and response to the major devastations wrought by Ondoy in Metro Manila, as well as to set directions for effective disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.

Loren Listens to that Still, Small Voice and the Emerging Natural Resource Governance Theory of the Times: The Governance by the Group

“In the midst of all the noise and secret whispers; The interest of a cooperative versus a mayor’s, that of a local party leader needing campaign fund for a political post versus that of a small farmers’ group, in the midst of threats from political interest groups of withdrawal of support if their leaders are not given funds— Whom should I listen to? That still, small voice of God’s spirit should reign supreme. ”

Green vice presidential candidate Loren Legarda declares that she will listen to the voice of the many—in her decision making on crucial matters such as allocation of funds for agriculture and environment. She calls on agricultural cooperatives and other farmers’ associations to prepare themselves as she is bent on passing the National Extension Bill. She said the bill will allot funds for agricultural activities of municipalities through demonstration farms on communal irrigation systems (CIS), high-yielding and climate-change tolerant crop varieties and environmentally safe inputs, use and maintenance of agricultural machineries and equipment as well as teaching the farmers and fisherfolk how to access credit and market their products.

“This is the best way I know how to turn around our agricultural performance. We have to teach our farmers and fisherfolk how to farm and fish in the most productive and sustainable way. And we have to channel our resources to the farm management mechanism that will integrate fragmented landholdings to attain economies of scale in production and marketing. We have to believe that human beings can work through a team or collaborative action. This is why Elinor Ostrom, a political scientist, is now the Nobel Prize winner, because of her belief that those who manage the commons can have reason to work together for the benefit of the majority.”, Loren said.

“Maybe Ostrom’s victory is a sign that we should heed her policy imperatives in managing our natural resources. We should work collaboratively. And we should give incentives for people to work together—I challenge the Cooperative Development Authority to study the work of Elinor Ostrom and know the secret of the most successful irrigation system the country has ever produced—the irrigation of the rice terraces—and other such collaborative systems in natural resource management in the world. Maybe we should also think of collaborative action by families. Plato thought the “kaibigan and kamag-anak” system is the root of all evil so he built his imaginary state on the foundation of communal governance of the republic among the guardians who do not know their children. The Chinese thought that was unnatural and built their economy on filial piety. The Chinese is now an economic giant. The Filipinos love their families, that is natural, therefore we should not fight it. And like the Chinese, we are Asians, we are not the individualistic Westerners in whom Adam Smith built his theory of individualism in the 1800s”, Loren theorized.

Source: http://www.lorenlegarda.com.ph/