Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Roy Cimatu challenged the regional or field offices to go down to the grassroots to involve more communities in their programs on the protection of the environment.

Cimatu made the challenge during the 34th founding anniversary celebration of DENR the other day wherein he underscored the importance of communicating with the communities to make them aware that the agency is serious in its mandate to defend the environment.

“For instance, make as many people as possible aware that we have forest guards and other employees who put their health and lives at stake defending our environment. We have a growing number of fallen environmental heroes. This is how serious we do our jobs here at DENR. But I hope and pray na wala nang mawawalang buhay dahil sa pagtatanggol sa kalikasan,” Cimatu stressed.

Cimatu further instructed the regional offices to let more people know how far they have gone in the Enhanced National Greening Program and other DENR programs implemented in the field that resulted in communities’ lives getting better.

“We have growing partnerships with communities, local government units, the private sector and other stakeholders, in our pursuit of sustainable development. These are partnerships that testify to the growing public trust and confidence that we have been earning. For as long as we do our jobs as best as we can and serve the majority of our people in keeping with democracy, we can and should hold our heads up high,” Cimatu said.

In the same occasion, Cimatu highlighted the accomplishments that the agency has gained even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He reported that the air is much cleaner now as it is well within the standards for PM10 and PM2.5. PM stands for particulate matter or particle pollution.

PM10 are the particles with a diameter of 10 micrometers and they are also called fine particles while PM2.5 refers to the atmospheric particulate matter that has a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres, which is about 3 percent of the diameter of human hair.

Cimatu further disclosed that 70 percent of the 43 priority rivers that they monitored in 2020 already met the water quality standard for biological oxygen demand while all the illegally operating dumpsites in the country have already been closed.

“Hindi biro ang accomplishment na ito. The closure of 335 illegal dumpsites in the Philippines is a victory for the environment and the DENR,” Cimatu stressed.

Following the closure of said dumpsites, the DENR through the Environmental Management Bureau facilitated the formation of the coalition of solid waste management providers, wherein it gathered all the sanitary landfill operators for a better solid waste management in the country.

“Salamat sa ating mga empleyado at opisyal na nagpursige upang matugunan ang solid waste problem ng bansa lalu na sa ating pambansang basurero na si Undersecretary Benny Antiporda,” Cimatu said.

Cimatu also reported that after the rehabilitation of the world class island-resort Boracay, they also brought back the ecological integrity of the island by recovering the beach easement, demolition of structures that encroach on the easement, improvement of the circumferential road, construction of drainage to address flooding and improvement of the seawater quality.

With regards to the restoration of Manila Bay, Cimatu disclosed that the water quality in the Manila Baywalk and Baseco beach areas have significantly improved in view of construction of a solar-powered sewage treatment plant; the continuous clean-up of waterways draining into the bay such as the Tullahan-Tinajeros river system, where dredging continues and the installation of more than 20 trash traps in different areas.

“These are just some of the many highlights of our accomplishments in the past year. For these, again, I thank every member of the entire DENR family that includes our regional offices, bureaus, attached agencies, PENROS, CENROS. The credit goes all around. Our work is far from over and we have a lot more to do and gains to sustain. We need more strengthened partnerships and collaboration to make our work more meaningful. I know that we cannot please everybody but let us not be discouraged rather let us keep up the good work,” Cimatu told the DENR officials and employees.