Government’s tree planting budget will more than double to P5.1 billion next year prompting a House leader to propose that denuded mountains that worsened the recent floods in Central Luzon and Metro Manila be prioritized in the 300,000 hectares that will be reforested in 2013.
Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tanada III said that a massive tree planting is one of the “upstream solutions” to the perennial flooding in the country’s capital “and on this the government is putting where its mouth is.”
According to Tanada, the government’s budget for the National Greening Program (NGP) will jump by 130 percent, from this year’s P2.2 billion to P5.1 billion next year.
“In fact , if we include the P850 million for ‘clonal nurseries and production of quality planting materials, ‘ the total regreening project is P5.9 billion, Tanada explained.
The amount, Tanada said, will be used to plant 150 million seedlings in 300,000 hectares next year, en route to the goal of the Aquino administration to widen forest cover to 30 percent of the country’s total land area by 2016.
At this given target and budget , the cost of reforesting one hectare is about P19,600 , Tanada said, “ a price which also underscores the need for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to strictly monitor its implementation.”
He said government can validate contractors’ claim of work through field inspections by the Commission on Audit , and by civil society groups or even via Google Earth which provide satellite photos of the earth’s topography.
Tanada said if properly implemented the NGP can solve two major problems the country is grappling with – environmental degradation and unemployment.
As job generator, the NGP employed 364,000 persons last year, a report from the DENR , which manages the program and administers the funds , claimed.
Tanada urged the DENR to study the possibility of employing Metro Manila’s “teeming jobless” including those living along estero banks to work in the NGP tree planting program.
“But not in traffic islands or sidewalks please but up there in the Sierra Madre , from where rainwater that floods Metro Manila ,Central Luzon and Laguna come from,” Tanada said.
Largely on account of the P2.9 billion hike in NGP funding, the budget of the DENR will increase by a hefty P6.6 billion, to P23.63 billion next year from thus year’s P17.47 billion.
Largely on account of the P2.9 billion hike in NGP funding, the budget of the DENR will increase by a hefty P6.6 billion, to P23.63 billion next year from thus year’s P17.47 billion.