THERE should be close coordination between the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and other government agencies and even between local government units so that they can efficiently address local environmental concerns.
Senator Loren Legarda, Senate Committee on Climate Change chairperson, said that the DENR would need to coordinate with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and the Department of Agriculture in creating programs for marine conservation and rehabilitation.
According to Legarda, the job of the three agencies would be to provide information to the LGUs.
“The job of the DENR, BFAR and DA is to inform one-on-one our local governments, governors, mayors, and barangay captains. That this is their mountains, their lakes, their seas. And whether the coral reefs are in front of them or behind them. We should have that information,” Legarda said in Filipino, during the 4th Asia-Pacific Coral Reef Symposium at the Marco Polo Plaza on Monday.
Legarda also said that the environmental department should also strengthen the enforcement of the environmental laws to protect the marine environment.
“Kulang. All these years, it is not just now,” said Legarda about the DENR’s efforts to enforce the environmental laws.
She cited environmental laws, such as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 2018, climate change act of 2009, among others, that the government should be strictly imposed.
“I was stating facts on the importance of conserving our marine environment and we have the laws, but it is so difficult sometimes to discipline people,” Legarda said as some waste were thrown to bodies of water which are affecting the marine lives.