DENR chief blames global warming for RP disasters

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Elisea Gozun blamed yesterday global warming for the series of landslides and floods that wrought death and destruction in the central and southern Philippines last month.

The disasters killed more than 200 people on the islands of Panaon, Leyte, Mindanao and Bohol shortly before Christmas.

Gozun said that while the massive loss of forest cover and geologic factors were partly responsible, these areas had so far avoided landslides even though farmers started clearing upland areas in 1928 for coconut and other cash crops.

She said the new elements were the record heavy rains that fell on Panaon and the Surigao region in Mindanao.

"One should, however, point out that this unusually heavy rain is one concrete manifestation of climate change," Gozun wrote in The STAR newspaper.

"Indeed, weather patterns all over the world have been changing — brought about by mans’ excessive release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.

"This is exacerbated by the fact that there are fewer trees which serve as carbon sinks and absorb the carbon dioxide."

Meanwhile, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said yeserday the government was providing medium- and long-term solutions in the disaster areas.

"Now we’re talking about relocation, the houses to which the disaster victims will transfer to because the places from which they came are now hardly habitable," Bunye said.

The government will build houses for some of the disaster victims on Panaon using bamboo and logs confiscated from illegal loggers, he added.

Bunye also said the government would engage in "massive reforestation" in these areas, using high-school and college students to plant trees as a matter of course prior to graduation. — AFP