Odong slams Gozun appointment to DENR

THE  deputy head of the powerful House contingent to the Commission on Appointments yesterday  said the Arroyo administration has again missed out on what is needed at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)  as he strongly criticized the appointment of Elisea  Gozun as Secretary of the environment and natural resources department.

Representative Aniceto G. Saludo, Jr. ( Lakas-NUCD, Lone District, Southern Leyte)  deputy chief of the House delegation to the Commission on Appointments said “Malacañang has again misread the need of the times by opting for cosmetic changes  and allowed itself to be coerced by a cabal of  influential advisers to name a “glorified gofer” as DENR secretary.”
Saludo said what the country and the DENR need at this time is not a change in leadership. We simply have to rid or strip the DENR of its oxymoron status,” Saludo said.

“What we have had for decades is a department that allows the exploitation and use of our natural resources which at the same time is also the same department that is tasked with protecting, conserving and enhancing these same natural resources,” Saludo said.
This is a classic oxymoron. The DENR is the user-exploiter and the protector-conservator rolled into one,” Saludo said.

Saludo pointed out that what the country needs at this time is a coherent and realistic policy that would delineate and spell out in clear, unmistakable terms the imperatives of exploitation, use and sustainable development of our natural resources vis-à-vis the environmental protection and conservation initiatives of this and future generations.

“By allowing the oxymoron status of this vital and strategic department to continue, we end up resorting to cosmetic changes that are meaningless. We must remove the blinders and stop the crass political opportunism and exploitation of the DENR just to pander to or promote the selfish political and economic agenda of the powerful and influential in society and the government,” Saludo said.

Saludo explained it is time for the Congress and the Arroyo administration to take the bull by the horns by separating the functions and imperatives of exploitation, use and development of the country’s natural resources from the environmental conservation, protection and enhancement initiatives to be able to nurture what’s left of out national patrimony for future generations of Filipinos.

Saludo said we need an Environment Protection Agency similar to what the United States and other countries have established in order that we can have a clear, efficient and effective interaction among the trade, agriculture and food, economic development, local government and other departments for the rationale and sustainable development and use of our national patrimony.

“We cannot allow overzealous environmentalists and cause oriented groups to simply dictate on the national economic agenda given the unchecked population growth, rising unemployment; economic slowdown and underdevelopment and lack of new industrial and business investments which all contribute to further aggravating the poverty index today,” Saludo said.

“It is evident that removing Alvarez and placing Gozun in his position would not make any difference at all.  In fact, “given the scant information about Gozun she is a big letdown as DENR secretary designate,” Saludo said.

Based on media reports, Saludo said Gozun’s claim to the top post at DENR is not buttressed at all by her earlier stints at the DENR as a minor functionary (as head executive assistant which translated from bureucratese simply means gofer) to then DENR Secretary Fulgencio Factoran then later as assistant secretary (a more pronounced, honorific gofer status) to DENR Secretary Victor Ramos during the Ramos administration, Saludo said.

Saludo said “if Gozun’s credentials as a street activist and environmentalist in charge of an internationally funded environment project was the basis for the Palace search committee, we might as well turn the DENR over to the NGO community.”
In fact, Saludo said sources of the CA in Malacañang said former PMS Chief Vicky Garchitorena and her relative Nina Pineda Galang led a powerful bloc of NGOs to push Gozun’s appointment.

In fairness to former Secretary Heherson Alvarez, the Palace should have respected his hurdling the CA, Saludo said.

“Even from a political standpoint alone, it was ill advised considering that Alvarez is a known environmentalist than Gozun and is the secretary general of the Lakas-NUCD, the President’s political party,” Saludo said.

Saludo said the ouster from the Arroyo cabinet of former foreign affairs secretary Guingona and Alvarez at DENR, president and secretary general respectively of Lakas-NUCD, point to very serious political miscalculation on the part of Palace political lieutenants. These are monumental blunders that do strain relations and increase the “mistrust” levels within and among party leaders and members on one hand, and, Malacañang, Saludo said.  Saludo expressed serious doubts of Gozun hurdling the Commission on Appointments.

 

(Released on December 5, 2002)