Friday, September 19, 2003
DENR won’t let graft charges distract work
By Karen M. Flores
EVEN as many of them, both officials and employees of the DENR, deal with graft charges, Undersecretary Demetrio Ignacio Jr. yesterday promised better management of the country’s water supply.
Speaking at the first Cebu City Water Congress held at the Capitol social hall, Ignacio first defended Environment Secretary Elisea Gozun against charges of corruption by saying she only has “explained poverty, not unexplained wealth.”
Ignacio said Gozun, who is in South Africa for the World Parks Congress, terminated her ties with the company that was given a P140-million consultancy contract before this was allegedly awarded with irregularities.
Gozun, whom he said finished at Cebu’s Southwestern University, “divested her equity” as an incorporator in the company in 1994 yet.
The contract selection for the project was made during the incumbency of three former environment secretaries. During Gozun’s term, the process was merely completed, Ignacio explained.
At the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), he said all officials have at least one graft case pending against them. He said he has four.
“We have a saying in the DENR that if you do not have cases against you, then you are not doing your job,” Ignacio said.
Gozun has been asked to resign by a former DENR lawyer.
During his speech, Ignacio said that because of Executive Order 123, which installs the DENR as chairperson of the National Water Resources Board (NWRB), the department will now be “responsible for water from the watershed to the faucets.”
NWRB has been so inefficient in the past few years, he noted.
They are waiting for the appointment of a new executive director has been ordered dismissed from the service by the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission due to dishonesty and abuse of authority.
The secretariat, meanwhile, has been “beset with weaknesses that have made it difficult to regulate the water sector.”
There are thousands of pending water applications. Of the estimated 8,000 permits granted, it is said that only about 1,000 of the holders paid the fees, Ignacio told participants of the water congress.
(September 19, 2003 issue)
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