2 senators back green bills

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

MINDANAOAN Senators Aquilino Pimentel III and Teofisto Guingona III said Saturday they will support the pending house bills and resolutions on environmental protection and rehabilitation of Sendong-devastated areas.

The bills are filed by Cagayan de Oro Representatives Rufus Rodriguez (2nd district) and Maximo Rodriguez of Abante Mindanao party-list.

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The two senators from Northern Mindanao issued this support during the Mindanao Summit on Disaster Risk Reduction and Geo-Hazard awareness held in Cagayan de Oro over the weekend.

The bills include House Bill (HB) 1063 imposing a logging ban in Cagayan de Oro City, HB 1064 declaring Cagayan de Oro City as a mining-free zone, HB 5663 that seeks for the appropriation of P2 billion for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities, and HB 5685 granting a 50-percent subsidy on the electricity bill of residents in the affected cities.

CAGAYAN DE ORO. Participants to the two-day summit on disaster risk reduction and geo-hazard awareness held in Cagayan de Oro discuss the things that need to be considered to prevent another Sendong-like tragedy in the country. (Joey P. Nacalaban

Guingona said the initiative is laudable as he and Pimentel expressed their all-out support on the bills, which are now pending at the Senate.

Pimentel said he had also came up with a “Hinabang” (assistance) bill but he will get the copy of Rodriguez’s bill and “try to make it simple and similar” to ensure its approval.

For his part, Rodriguez thanked the two senators for their promise to support and approve the bills in the Senate.

He said the imposition of a logging ban in Cagayan de Oro and declaring it a mining-free zone would protect the city’s watersheds and prevent another Sendong-like disaster from happening again.

He said the P2-billion fund would help in rehabilitating and reconstructing the two cities, which were badly hit by “Sendong”.

In Cagayan de Oro alone, at least P884-million worth of roads, bridges and other infrastructures and P9.9-million worth of health facilities were damaged.

Related to this, Guingona is also eyeing for the immediate passage of the Solidarity Fund bill to aid local government units (LGUs) in times of disaster and even in the midst of massive reconstruction.

He said the bill aims to set up a pooled fund to be shared among LGUs when calamity strikes.

Guingona said the proposed measure requires LGUs to contribute 0.5 percent of their total revenues to a fund, which will be held as a trust account in a government bank and will be accessible to any LGU in a declared state of calamity whose own quick response fund has already been depleted.

“The bill is like a ‘paluwagan’ system for LGUs. If there is a need for funds and they don’t have, they can use the Solidarity Fund. This will be exclusively used for the disaster response and recoveries for local government and the payment of catastrophic insurance premiums for public infrastructures,” he said.

Consistent with the very Filipino spirit of “bayanihan,” Guingona said this measure allows LGUs to help each other in times of need. (Michael Andrew W. Yu)