DENR inaugurates P8 million new building

CEBU, Philippines – A new building worth P7.9 million was inaugurated yesterday in the compound of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

The new Land Records Building which has a total floor area of 824 square meters was constructed in the hope of speeding up the processing and releasing of land records. It seeks to cater to a greater number of people and to release records especially those with voluminous requests.

Leonardo Sibbaluca, regional executive director of the DENR, who was among the officials of the department who led the activity, said that they “wish to serve more people in a speedy and efficient manner through the new building and its facilities.”

“With the completion of this building and the computerization which is now in progress, we hope we could serve the public with their requests by shortening the number of days of processing and releasing of land records, as we have been receiving numerous requests to secure land records from them,” Sibbaluca said.

To expedite release of needed land records to the public is one of the flagship programs of DENR Secretary Jose “Lito” Atienza, Jr.

Present during the inauguration of the building were DENR Undersecretary for Staff Manuel Gerochi and Fr. Dionisio Miranda, president of the University of San Carlos which is a partner of the DENR in preparing land records for computerization.

Groundbreaking and capsule laying ceremony took place June 26 of last year. It was officially accepted last May 22 by Sibbaluca.

The blessing of the new building is one of the activities of the DENR for June observed as the Environment Month.

Tomorrow June 18, a mangrove propagule planting and a coastal cleanup would take place in Olango Island, Lapu-Lapu City with students and other DENR personnel.

High school students will compete in an essay writing contest on climate change and current trends and issues of the environment on June 19. This is one way for the department to gather more ideas, especially from the youth, on what current problems hurt the public most. This way, pressing issues could be given utmost attention while key recommendations leading to solutions could be prioritized.

Members of the media and officials of local government units would also be toured to the mines in Bohol while given discussions on environment and social provisions of Republic Act 7942 or the Philippine Mining Act. – AJ de la Torre/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)