One silver lining from this jaw-dropping anomaly on flood control projects at the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is that the public has now been made aware of how the looting of state coffers has become so deeply rooted and well-entrenched.
But let’s not be fooled. Corruption is not confined to the DPWH. We are learning a harsh reality – it is severe, systematic and widespread across the bureaucracy.
Take the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for instance. Corruption at the department that is supposed to protect, conserve and manage our environment and natural resources is as dangerous as corruption within the DPWH.
For one, such a crime is also a major reason for flooding in the metropolis. While the flood control thievery results in the absence of structures that are supposed to prevent flash floods, anomalies in the issuance of environmental permits and land titles result in the destruction of our forests, watersheds and mountain ranges.
These, in turn, cause landslides and massive flooding in our cities.
Quietly, and while it seems nobody is watching, there have been crooks at the DENR who have been giving away forest lands or protected areas when this should not be the case.
To be fair to DENR Secretary Raphael Lotilla, we’ve been hearing of corruption within the department, especially at the local level, long before he took the helm in May.
But this is a challenge for the good secretary, to look into syndicates and crooks that endanger our environment instead of protecting it.
Watershed syndicates
One major problem is the watershed syndicates.
Did you know that the Marikina and the Kaliwa Watersheds are plagued by syndicates that destroy the natural wealth of the country? The government, it seems, has lost control of some of our watersheds to unscrupulous individuals, who managed to secure rights in protected areas, in cahoots with corrupt DENR executives.
This shouldn’t be the case because the area is a declared sanctuary.
Proclamation 1636, signed by Ferdinand Marcos Sr. on April 18, 1977, declared as a ‘national park wildlife sanctuary and game preserve a certain parcel of land of the public domain embraced and situated in the provinces of Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna and Quezon, Island of Luzon.’
‘I, Ferdinand E. Marcos, President of the Philippines, do hereby withdraw from sale, settlement, exploration or exploitation and set aside and declare as national park, wildlife sanctuary and game preserve, subject to private rights, if any there be, and to the operation of previous proclamations reserving portions thereof for specific purposes, a certain parcel of land of the public domain embraced and situated in the provinces of Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna and Quezon, Island of Luzon… The hunting, wounding, taking or killing within said territory of any wild animals or birds and/or the destruction of any vegetation or any act causing disturbances to the habitat of the wildlife herein protected are hereby prohibited,’ according to the presidential proclamation.
And yet some of these areas have been developed into housing projects, private resorts and the like, as if the developers have rights over the public lands of the Republic of the Philippines.
By the way, these occupants are not homeless. On the contrary, some of them are powerful families and businesses.
How did we get here? Apparently, some of these occupants managed to secure title-like patents over the land with the help of PENROs or the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office of the DENR.
This is much like the DPWH district engineering offices in different localities.
The PENROs, apparently, issue free patents – which give them rights over the property – to those who can afford them, instead of protecting these national parks. Sources said this is in exchange for an amount these PENRO executives could not resist.
To make matters worse, in this area, there are three large-scale quarrying Mineral Production Sharing Agreements signed in 1998 and 1999.
These quarrying projects, straddling parts of the Masungi Geopark, occupy an aggregate area of 1,344 hectares.
If these continue, the day will come when the mountains are leveled to the ground, destroying the geological heritage, water reservoir and the area’s biodiversity.
Previous DENR secretaries have blocked the issuance of free patents, survey plans and other tenurial instruments and yet there are hectares and hectares of inalienable lands of the public domain that have free patents.
Some as far back as the 70s, 80s and 90s.
I heard that this is happening not just in the Rizal, Laguna and Quezon areas but in many other parts of the country from Mindanao to the Visayas.
It is with utmost urgency that Secretary Popo addresses this problem. To be fair, he said that he is indeed looking into this.
Cases must be filed against illegal occupants in our protected areas and the DENR executives who allowed this to happen.
ECC: ‘Early campaign contribution’
This harsh reality is a testament that corruption at the DENR, just like at the DPWH, is also widespread. The so-called ECC or environment clearance certificate is, in fact, sometimes called early campaign contribution as applicants sometimes feel the whole ECC process feels like spending for an election campaign.
With this sad reality at the DENR, there is no better time to address the corruption at the department than now, while the Marcos administration is trying to restore public trust in government institutions.