Lito Atienza's Blog
DENR SECRETARY LITO ATIENZA: WHAT MAKES THE NEXT PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT
Leave a Comment
Vodpod videos no longer available.
lito atienza
SEC LITO ATIENZA TO HONOR FREED FOREST GUARDS, EXPRESSES GRATITUDE TO BISHOP PUEBLOS
Leave a Comment
The freed forest guards recently kidnapped in Butuan City will be given honors for the courage they have demonstrated during their five-day ordeal with their abductors.
I want to express my gratitude to Butuan City Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos, Police Chief Supt. Lino Calingasan and DENR-CARAGA Regional Executive Director Edilberto Buiser for taking all the necessary steps leading to the unconditional release of the remaining six hostages.
For the gallant DENR employees, I understand the hardship you have been through and the anxieties and untold miseries that the members of your families have experienced during those period of crisis.
The six newly-freed DENR employees were identified as for. Gabriel Arlan (team leader), Rito Espenido, Teofredo E. Pujadas, Rudy A. Clar, Edgardo Abogatal and Ildefonso Jayme. They were released Sunday at around 4:30 pm and were met by Buiser at Brgy. Kolambogan, Sibagat, Agusan del Sur, about 25 kilometers away from Butuan City. Two were released earlier, namely, Emiliano Gatillo, Jr. and Efren Sabuero.
The abductors of their colleagues in Caraga region were neither kidnappers nor armed rebels but were simply tribal folks who want to bring their gripes to the national leadership in ways they knew best.
A Manobo group, led by a certain Andot Behing, did not demand for any ransom money, but certain conditions which they believed would serve the interests of their community over their ancestral claims.
Sila ay mga katutubo na may mga hinaing. Kaya ang ating ginawa ay nakinig at pinakinggan kung ano yon. Hindi rin po mga NPA (New People’s Army) yon, dahil hindi po naman sila kumaakapit sa ideology ng anuman (neither are they NPA since they are not idealogues embracing the agenda of the communist insurgency).
Wala pong kinalaman yon sa anumang alingasngas o ilegal kung hindi sa pagtatrabaho ng ating mga tauhan ay sila’y nasangkot dito at nabiktima ng hindi pagkakaintindihan.
I am recognizing the importance of DENR field workers as those who give substance to the DENR’s mandate. Those working within the comforts of an office building are far fortunate than those in the field like the DENR forest guards.
THE DAILY TRIBUNE – Atienza top performer among Cabinet officials, survey shows
Leave a Comment
Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza (left) inspects part of the P27 million-worth of assorted undocumented timber seized by forestry officers of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Region 7 during a six-month-long sustained offensive from January to June 2009. Atienza ordered the offensive against illegal logging, which netted some 24,634 board feet, in the wake of reports that timber poachers were active in the forested areas in San Isidro and Luboc towns in Bohol, using the coastal town of Panglao as their transport route. Assisting Atienza during the inspection at the compound of the local DENR office in Talibon, Bohol is DENR-Region 7 Executive Director Leonardo Sibbaluca (right).
THE DAILY TRIBUNE – METROFILE May 2009
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Lito Atienza maintained his top spot on the recent nationwide performance rating survey among Cabinet officials with a rating of 63 percent done by the Asia Research Center in partnership with HKPH Public Opinion and Research Center conducted last April 1 to 15, followed by Tourism Secretary Ace Durano with 58 percent. Placing third behind Durano was Health Secretary Francisco Duque, 56 percent; Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral, 54 percent, and Agriculture head Arthur Yap, 50 percent. The survey revealed Atienza’s performance rating increased significantly from 59 percent (October 2008) to 63 percent, for a +4 percent net satisfaction. With an exceptional background as the mayor who brought Manila back to life, Atienza not only flourished Manila but also penetrated the national scene on environment protection when he was assigned by Her Excellency to head the DENR. A man of action, Atienza brought many firsts to DENR. He implemented a Supreme Court decision which, for various reasons, has not been executed for 40 long years, redefining the boundaries of the Zobel de Ayala’s Calatagan hacienda; he negotiated the fast-tracking of the setting up of wastewater treatment facilities by Manila Water and Maynilad and dismantled illegal fish pens and fish cages in the Cavite bay portion of the Manila Bay as well as in Laguna de Bay. He proved his faith on the youth of today when he forged an agreement with the alliance of law students to monitor environmental cases in various courts following the establishment of Green Courts by the SC and worked closely with the Green Ombudsman led by its head, Merceditas Gutierrez. The same survey revealed House Speaker Prospero Nograles with 61 percent performance rating while at third place is Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile with 53 percent performance rating. Speaker Nograles’ ratings have been consistent due to the balanced system he implements which works effectively within the members of the House of Representatives. As for Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, it may even be indeed a well-deserved rate since Enrile showed effective leadership and management of the Senate after he won the Senate coup over Manny Villar in November of 2008. According to Jonn Marvine Dadan, project manager of HKPH Public Opinion and Research Center, survey groups will be conducting regular surveys to pulse the political climate in the Philippines especially now that the elections are fast approaching.
ATIENZA STEPS IN OVER REPOSSESION OF A PRIME PROPERTY IN FORBES PARK
Leave a Comment
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Lito Atienza leads the repossession of a 2,600-square meter DENR property located along Mc Kinley Road in Forbes Park, Makati City that was abandoned by the lessee with a Php7-million unpaid rental. Atienza stressed that “collection and not connection” motivated the DENR to pursue the case under his administration which is committed on the impartial implementation of the law. Charges will be filed against the lessee as the prime property is set to be auctioned.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has initiated all legal proceedings in the repossession of a government-owned property along Mckinley Road in Forbes Park, Makati City. This came about after a realty firm leasing the 2,333-square meter lot failed to pay its back rentals to the DENR for six years, amounting to P5.6 million.
We are just getting what is due to the government which the realty firm has refused to take heed despite repeated notices served them as early as in 2005, noting that a complaint against NGO Realty Development Corp., under Civil Case No. 98770, has already been lodged with the Metropolitan Trial Court of Makati City through the Office of the Solicitor General Agnes VST Devanadera.
Our move to file the case against the lessee is a proof of the Department’s impartial enforcement of the law. We will definitely spare no one in our law enforcement campaign, not even the rich and the powerful.
DENR records show that the premise, with an address at 12 (formerly 13) Mckinley Road, is covered by Transfer Certificate of Title (TCT) No. 17810 issued by the Registry of Deeds of Makati City to the government “as owner thereof” described as Lot 2, Block 2, Psd-26554.
On August 31, 1994, the DENR’s Land Management Bureau (LMB) signed a 20-year lease contract with a certain Angelina Go, allowing the government through the DENR-LMB, to increase the rent due every five years based on the reappraisal of the value of the land and improvements.
Consequently, Angelina Go, in January 2001, entered into a contract with NGO Realty Development Corp., assigning her leasehold rights to the realty firm through its president identified as a certain Patrick Tong with business address at 420 Urbiztondo Street, San Nicolas, Binondo, Manila.
The assignment of Go’s lease over the premises to Tong’s firm was in turn approved by then DENR-LMB Director Ernesto Adobo, with a provision that the same terms and conditions of the lease contract between Go and the DENR-LMB is enforced. .
On August 4, 2004, “pursuant to the contract lease,” the DENR-LMB reappraised the property and increased the monthly rental rate to P86,076.67 or an annual rate of P1,032,920.04 million effective August 1, 2004.
From that time, Tong’s firm refused to pay its lease.
The rental rate was again reappraised in 2005, with the annual rate increasing to P1,653,407.11. A notice to pay was sent to the firm on February 17 that year.
Another demand letter, dated June 22, 2006, directed Tong’s firm to pay the unpaid rentals and interest in the amount of P2,835,565.06 as of January 15, 2006.
On January 11, 2007, the DENR-LMB served notice to the firm informing it to vacate the property because the lease contract had been terminated for failure to pay the rentals in violation of the terms and conditions of the lease contract, and to pay the arrearages amounting to P2,335,565.06.
On July 24, the LMB-DENR wrote a final demand letter reiterating its demand to vacate the leased premises and pay the arrearages in the same amount (P2,335,565.06).
On August 21, 2008, the DENR-LMB posted final demand letter on the premises.
DENR SECRETARY LITO ATIENZA:FOLLOWING THE RULE OF LAW
1 Comment
THE RULE OF LAW BY FEL MARAGAY: MANILA STANDARD TODAY AUGUST 3, 2009
Some members of the Arroyo Cabinet are appearing in expensive television infomercials primarily to sell themselves to the public as potential candidates for president or senator. To be frank about it, the messages that they put across to the televiewers about the services and projects of their respective departments or agencies are just a pretense for the political purpose of the 30-seconder advertisement.
But I have yet to see the most seasoned politician in the Cabinet, Environment Secretary Lito Atienza, appearing in any of these informercials. Some Malacañang watchers say Atienza does not need those TV ads because he is taking another crack at the mayoral post of Manila where he has a 100-percent awareness rating. But he is a well-known figure all over the country that his inclusion in the senatorial slate of the administration cannot be ruled out. What if President Arroyo asks him to run for senator? Some media commentators even think he should set his sights at the presidency.
Whenever people ask Atienza what elective office he is going to seek, he gives no straight answer since the deadline for the filing of certificate of candidacy is still on Nov. 30. He believes that if you declare that you are running for a certain position before you file your certificate of candidacy, you are already transgressing the law. “To me you are already violating the law. You are violating the Constitution because it is very clear that we must not prematurely campaign,” he told members of the Philippine Constitution Association at the Manila Hotel on July 21.
Atienza, who served as Manila mayor for three consecutive terms, relates the story of a mayor of Honolulu by the name of Jeremy Harris who was very popular he was able to beat his opponent by a landslide. But when Harris was sworn in as mayor, he declared, perhaps in the euphoria of the occasion, that he was running for governor of Hawaii in the next elections. A constituent sued him for making that seemingly innocuous statement and as a consequence, he was not only booted out as mayor but was also disqualified from running for governor. The environment czar says that is the kind of enforcement of laws that our country needs if we really want order and sanity reigning in the government.
He stresses that the rule of law, the respect for the Constitution, is the basic anchor that should prevail if our country is to move forward, maintain political stability and wisely use its bountiful natural and manpower resources for economic advancement. When Edsa 2 broke out in January 200l after all members of the prosecution panel in the impeachment case against then President Joseph Estrada walked out, the Manila mayor refused to join the “mob” to the consternation of his own relatives, close friends and some Catholic clergymen who were prodding him to defect to the other side. “You cannot be removing presidents by street action and another people power. And with that decision, I stood pat and I stayed on, rallied our people in the city to defend the Constitution.”
This was the same guidepost he followed in coming to the defense of the Arroyo administration against all destabilization moves and coup plots by her political foes and renegade soldiers, The rule of law is also the underlying reason why Atienza is not budging an inch in pursuing the move to get the oil depots of the Big Three industry players out of Pandacan.
It is the basic right of the citizens to have a clean and safe environment. The continued presence of these oil storage facilities in the very heart of the capital city of the republic tramples upon this right. At any given day, the depots contain 300 million liters of oil, aviation gas, liquefied petroleum gas and other petroleum products which are among the most volatile substances on earth.
There is no more city in the world, whether in Asia or Europe, that still harbors oil depots in its midst. It is only in Manila that its residents are exposed to this extreme danger to their lives and properties. Experts warn that if these oil depots explode as an offshoot of a terrorist attack or an accident, it could cause damage over areas within a 14-kilometer radius, which is practically the whole of Metro Manila.
In March, the Supreme Court upheld with finality the legality of a ordinance, passed during Atienza’s term as Manila mayor, mandating the transfer of the oil depots to a site far away from the metropolis. But within two weeks after the high court’s ruling, the present city administration railroaded the promulgation of the infamous Ordinance 8187 that changed the classification of the present site of the facilities and other similar areas. This had the effect of overturning the ordinance for the dismantling and relocating these facilities.
But Atienza, along with environmental activists, is confident that the unwanted ordinance will eventually be invalidated by the high tribunal for the simple reason that the judiciary will not tolerate an act that makes a mockery of the law and compromises public safety and welfare.
Lito Atienza's Blog 