In the opening of the three-day first quarter regional management conference of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Cagayan Valley, Undersecretary for Policy Programs and International Affairs Jonas Leones has cited the commitment of the environment officials to environmental good governance to attain quality environment and sustainable natural resources.

 

“Despite the challenges in implementing our programs, you still manage to stride raising the bar of excellent performance towards building a sustainable environment,” said Atty. Leones adding the importance of strategic planning in implementing transparency, accountability, and participatory approaches to achieve greater impact to environment and climate change resiliency programs.

 

USec. Leones also emphasized the need to institutionalize information and communication technology to create solutions and formulate policies through database and online management system.

 

In her message, Regional Executive Director Gwendolyn Bambalan of DENR CV stressed to continue developing new approaches and systems to enhance public service delivery.

 

“I challenge our PENROs and CENROs to embrace digitization in our office operations to make our work lighter and smarter. Let us transform our existing processes by maximizing digital technologies,” Director Bambalan said.

 

As evident of bracing change for development, the DENR R2 was recently conferred with bronze award under the Program to Institutionalize Meritocracy and Excellence in Human Resource Management, specifically by implementing an online recruitment, selection and placement in the agency, the first DENR initiative nationwide.

 

An online system for land record application will also be launched on friday as part of decentralizing the authority of securing simple land record transactions to the field offices.

 

"Let us raise the bar of performance. When we raise the bar of performance, we create a culture of excellence and quality public service," the regional environment chief added.

 

In the awards night, the best regional divisions and PENR and CENR offices and best established forest plantation demonstration areas under the forestland management project were recognized.

 

Discussions on environmental programs concerning legal easements, urban biodiversity to include in mining areas, forestland management, online application for environmental compliance certificate, forestland areas inventory, implementation plan, and concerns from the bureaus, management and technical services were discussed.

 

Experts from research and development and University of the Philippines Los Baños also discussed in the conference the water security in Cagayan River Basin and its climate vulnerability assessment.

 

A benchmarking activity was also conducted in Nagassican, Santiago City to observe and adapt best practices in solid waste management.

 

Nagassican is 2022 regional winner of barangay basura buster and a multi-awarded barangay local government unit under the leadership of punong barangay Reynante Bautista.

 

The opening program was graced by Janet Orpilla representing City Mayor Alyssa Sheena Dy.#