Press Release
February 6, 2006APPOINTMENT OF NEW
DENR SECRETARY AN OFFSHOOT OF HAPHAZARD PALACE DECISION
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban)
today voiced apprehension that the government may fall short of its
responsibility to protest and preserve the countrys forest, marine
and other natural resources and to maintain ecological balance in
view of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyos decision to appoint a
secretary of environment and natural resources without any
background, and much less interest, in this area of government
concern.
Pimentel said Secretary Angelo Reyes, newly-appointed head of the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources, may be the wrong
man for the job, leaving the enormous task of preventing
environmental degradation uncertain.
He said it is an open secret that Reyes preferred to stay as
secretary of interior and local government because he is more at
home there and did not like to be transferred to the DENR where he
felt he may be ineffective because is a strange field to him.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo owes the public an explanation
why she placed Reyes, a military man, as DENR secretary when ideally
and by tradition, this position should be held by a person who is an
environmentalist by training and inclination, Pimentel said.
The minority leader said every indication points to the fact that
Reyes reassignment to the DENR is a product of accommodation in view
of Malacañang
s decision to replace him with Antipolo Rep. Ronaldo
Puno at the DILG.
Pimentel said the Palace wants Puno to take over the helm of the
DILG so that the administration can make use of his expertise as a
political operator par excellence in mobilizing the local
government chief executives for the forthcoming launching of
peoples initiative for Charter Change, the main aim of which is to
perpetuate President Arroyo in power despite doubts over her
legitimacy.
He said the appointment of Reyes is not a product of a carefully
thought-of idea to maximize the benefits from utilization of natural
resources or strictly implement environmental safeguards especially
in the face of expanded mining operations by foreign mining
companies.
On the contrary, Pimentel said Reyes was transferred to the DENR as
a fallback position after he rejected the Palaces plan to appoint
him ambassador to Washington D.C. |