P-Noy urged to include LGUs in NCCAP
OPINION/BUSINESS
Tuesday, Novemberr 29, 2011
Page 5
BUDGET activists welcomed Pres. Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III’s recent approval of the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP) which will serve as the country’s roadmap in the fight against climate change.
Roland Cabigas, managing director of the La Liga Policy Institute (La Liga) however said, Pres. Aquino, the concurrent chairman of the Climate Change Commission (CCC) and Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje, his alter-ego in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) should be able to forge and strengthen partnership with local government units (LGUs) and other stakeholders, including the private sector, nongovernment organizations, people’s organizations, church and basic subsectors, for the successful implementation of NCCAP.
The NCCAP was drafted by CCC after a series of consultation with various stakeholders.
P-Noy’s approval of NCCAP, it will now be implemented by various government agencies led by the DENR, can now implemented the program. Paje is also chairman of the Cabinet Cluster on Climate Change.
Cabigas said the President should make sure that these courses of action to be undertaken by the government as part of NCCAP should help strengthen the country’s adaptive capacities and resiliency to extreme weather events such as excessive rains or long season of droughts; super typhoons, flashfloods, landslides, storm surges, or even earthquakes.
He said it should be properly funded by the government, so that it will not just be another unfunded mandate which has yet to be fully implemented because of lack of funds.
According to Cabigas, the CCCC under P-Noy and Vice Chairman Lucille Sering, who coordinates all adaptation and mitigation measures of the government as well as other private sector-partners and the Cabinet Cluster on Climate Change led by Paje should formulate mechanism on its localization for adoption by LGUs.
Cabigas said there should be a clear guideline on how the plan will be implemented at the local level by concerned LGUs, who are looking forward to being a part of NCCAP’s implementation in their respective localities.
La liga, a development policy research and advocacy nongovernment organization, is pushing for a more “climate sensitive” National budget for 2012 and is seeking an increase of P17.3 billion for the environment and natural resources sector over and above Malacanang’s budget proposals.
The convening organization of the Alternative Budget Initiative – Environment Cluster and the Caucus to Green the MTPDP, La Liga has also tagged a total of P100 billion potential climate change funds in the 2011 budget, which the government should be able to use appropriately to implement various disaster risk reduction and management plans and strengthen the country’s resiliency to natural disasters.
Cabigas said LGUs are in the best position to identify programs and projects, and take courses of action, that will address the woes of the highly at-risk and vulnerable sectors to the adverse impacts of climate change.
“While some LGUs have recognized the need to integrate disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in their local development plans, it is important that their various initiatives will get the much-needed boost from the national government in terms of programs, plans and more importantly, budget,” Cabigas said.
He noted that LGUs in the town of Pangasinan, namely Alaminos City, Bani, Burgos, and Dasol, have already taken steps to institutionalize funding for DRR and climate change adaptation measures through their integration in the annual investment plans (AIPs), most LGUs still lack the financial resources to be able to respond to the challenges of intensifying typhoons that perennially cause loss of lives, property and livelihood, not to mention massive destruction of farms that affect the poorest of the poor.
During their 3rd Philippine Cities Global Convention and Exposition held at the Resorts World early this month, the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) declared support behind the DENR’S “Adaptayo Campaign: Our Nation’s Call for Climate Change Adaptation.”
In its declaration, the LCP said the climate crisis necessitates that climate change adaptation must be integrated as a key element in local development plans and programs.
It also called on the 122-member cities to integrate disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in the local development plans.
The initiative, Cabigas said, should be complemented by the national government by including the LGUs in identifying specific courses of action leading to successful implementation of the NCCAP.
“The LGUs are at the frontline of the war against hunger and poverty, both of which depends heavily on the resiliency and adaptive capacity of local communities to the perennial problems brought about by intensifying typhoons and flashfloods that is severely affecting local economic development,” Cabigas said.
La Liga believes that the NCCAP, being the country’s roadmap to fighting climate change woes should promote inclusive growth, adequately funded, and accessible to the most vulnerable LGUs that needs them most
