Lawmaker wants denuded mountains in Luzon reforested

Manila, Philippines -  Deputy Speaker and Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III said yesterday the denuded mountains that worsened the recent floods in Central Luzon and Metro Manila should be prioritized in the 300,000 hectares that will be reforested under the government’s P5.1-billion tree-planting budget for 2013.

He said massive tree planting is one of the “upstream solutions” to the perennial flooding in the country’s capital.

Tañada said the government’s budget for the National Greening Program (NGP) will increase by 130 percent, from this year’s P2.2 billion to P5.1 billion next year.

“In fact, if we include the P850 million for clonal nurseries and production of quality planting materials, the total re-greening project is P5.9 billion,” he said.

He added that the amount will be used to plant 150 million seedlings in 300,000 hectares next year, en route to the goal of the Aquino administration to widen forest coverage to 30 percent of the country’s total land area by 2016.

“At this given target and budget, the cost of reforesting per one hectare is about P19,600, a price which also underscores the need for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to strictly monitor its implementation,” Tañada said.

He said government can validate contractors’ claim of work through field inspections by the Commission on Audit, and by civil society groups or even via Google Earth, which provides satellite photos of the earth’s topography.

Tañada said if properly implemented, the NGP can solve two major problems the country is grappling with – environmental degradation and unemployment.

As job generator, the NGP employed 364,000 persons last year, a report from the DENR, which manages the program and administers the funds, claimed.

He urged the DENR to study the possibility of employing Metro Manila’s “teeming jobless,” including those living along estero banks to work in the NGP tree-planting program.

“Not in traffic islands or sidewalks please, but up there in the Sierra Madre, from where rainwater that floods Metro Manila, Central Luzon and Laguna come from,” he said.