DENR in good hands

Presidential candidate Noynoy Aquino’s outburst at the way that he said journalist Antonio Lopez acted as moderator in a debate sponsored by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry is just one of the sideshows in this year’s presidential election campaign. Noynoy, the Liberal Party standard bearer, accused Lopez of showing bias in favor of the Nacionalista standard bearer Manny Villar.

Interestingly, the same charge has been made by other presidential candidates against moderators, debate organizers, and TV networks, of their being biased in favor of Noynoy — the reason why some candidates are very picky about what forum to attend.

So much mudslinging and barb-throwing have become evident this early in the campaign. Some charges may be truth, others half-truths, others outright lies. The intent is clearly to whack rival candidates of running and getting votes.

One interesting, and enlightening, exchange being aired on the Internet is that between UP Prof. Solita Monsod, who first appeared on local television to prove that Villar had cheated on the C-5 road insertion, and Ricardo Barcelona, a former student of Monsod at the University of the Philippines who is now a top rated analyst and adviser abroad. Monsod “rebuked” his student for questioning her report, and Barcelona “rebuked” his mentor for her “selective” use of statistics, intended to crush Villar’s credibility. The exchange continues; it would be well for Internet users to determine if indeed Villar is guilty of wrongdoing.

And so the campaign rages — sometimes unnerving, other times amusing.

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The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has a new acting secretary, Horacio C. Ramos, who was sworn in by Executive Secretary Eduardo R. Ermita last week. He comes on the heels of Secretaries Lito Atienza and Angelo Reyes, who have had no training in environmental issues.

According to our source, Secretary Ramos is very qualified for the job, being a mining engineer by profession and one of the very few mining economists in the country. His fields of specialization are mining economics; mining, minerals and sustainable development; ore reserves evaluation/valuation; mine feasibility evaluation; mine planning; and community organizing. This expertise puts him in a unique position to help the mining industry contribute in a bigger way to national development.

Ramos is a career DENR executive and has four decades of experience in government service, rising from the ranks at the DENR to its highest field operations position: Regional Executive Director in Region 1 and the Cordillera Administrative Region.

Ramos was appointed director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) in March 1996, thus making him one of the longest occupants of the position. He assumed the MGB directorship at a time of intense opposition to the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 and to mining as a whole.

He is one of the acknowledged architects of the current Revitalization Program for the Philippine Minerals Industry pursuant to the Arroyo administration’s policy decision to revitalize the minerals industry. Executive Order No. 270 or the National Policy on Revitalizing Mining in the Philippines, issued by the President on June 16, 2004, was the end-product of a yearlong series of consultations with all stakeholders to identify consensus that would guide the revitalization program. These consultations resulted in points of convergence which became the guiding principles of E.O. 270.

 As MGB Director, Ramos pursued the goal of reviving the mining industry and giving it a major role in the country’s national development within the framework of sustainable development, which has three pillars: environmental protection, social development and economic growth.

Ramos holds a master’s degree in mining engineering from the University of New South Wales, Australia (1978) and a graduate diploma in mining and mineral engineering from the same university in 1976. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in mining engineering degree from the Mapua Institute of Technology in 1967.

Ramos is a Career Executive Service Officer (CESO Rank III) conferred by the Philippine Career Executive Service Board in 1998. He was the second-placer in the Mining Engineering Licensure Examination in 1967.

In 2009, he was cited as Most Outstanding Alumni by the Mapua Institute of Technology. The previous year, he was honored with a Plaque of Recognition by the Baguio Regreening Movement as its Founding Father. In 1996, he was among Ten Outstanding Mining Engineers in the Government Service by the Philippine Society of Mining Engineers.

Ramos has been the Philippine representative to the Geneva-based intergovernmental forum on mining, mineral and sustainable development from July 2007 to the present.

As MGB Director, Ramos was tasked to complete the National Geohazard Mapping Program by June 2010. As Acting Secretary, he will have a greatly expanded role attending to this and other issues that DENR confronts as part of its mandate as the primary agency responsible for the conservation, management, development, and proper use of the country’s environment and natural resources.

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One of the main concerns of any government is high population growth. Managing the population to a desirable level is important so that each and every citizen gets his share of resources and basic services.

The Commission on Population’s (POPCOM) primary mandate is the promotion of a healthy, safe, and effective way of managing population through the Responsible Parenthood Movement-Natural Family Planning Program. 

Edna and Victor Reyes, 30 and 33 years old respectively, married at an early age. After their second child was born, they decided not to have any more children so they can provide the best for their offspring. At a natural family planning seminar, they learned to apply the Standard Days Method. Says Edna: “We felt the Standard Days Method is safe, effective, and without side effects.”

SDM is just one of the many methods available under the Responsible Parenthood Movement-Natural Family Planning Program, one of the key components of the Accelerated Hunger-Mitigation Program (AHMP) of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The AHMP is being implemented by the Anti-Hunger Task Force (AHTF) created by President Arroyo through Executive Order 616 which is composed of 30 national government agencies and faith-based organizations. The AHTF is led by the Health Secretary who also chairs the National Nutrition Council which oversees the implementation of the AHMP.

 However, while implementation has expanded up to the barangay level, the increase has been rather slow. In a report presented by the NNC Secretariat to then Health Secretary and National Nutrition Council Chair Francisco T. Duque III last December 2009, the NNC Secretariat said that POPCOM is among the low performers in 2009, achieving only about 50 percent of its targets for the year.

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