Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Acting Secretary Jim O. Sampulna has led the DENR community in giving recognition to 69 employees of the agency who passed the 2020-2021 Bar examinations.
Sampulna shared his optimism for the successful Bar examinees during the DENR’s flag-raising ceremony on April 18, hoping that the new lawyers will stay in government service in the long-term.
“This augurs well for DENR’s continuing program to strengthen its legal arsenal,” Sampulna said, noting that many of the new lawyers were fresh law school graduates when they were hired as legal researchers.
Of the 69 bar passers, 17 are employed in the DENR Central Office in Quezon City; 12 in Region 2; five each in Region 4B and Region 6; four in Region 5; three each in Region 8 and the Cordillera Administrative Region; two each in Regions 1, 9, 10, 12, 13; and one each in Regions 3, 4A and 7.
Seven others are with the DENR’s bureaus and attached agencies comprising one each in the Land Management Bureau, Forest Management Bureau, and Environmental Management Bureau, and two each in the Mines and Geosciences Bureau and Laguna Lake Development Authority.
Joseph Lorenz Asuncion, from the office of the DENR Assistant Secretary for Legal Affairs, landed in the exemplary list for obtaining 85-90 percent rating in the Bar exams.
Sampulna added that the high turnout of Bar passers from the DENR “points to the fact that we are getting the right people in the service, which puts the DENR in a stronger position to deliver high resolution of cases in its legal office.”
DENR’s program to beef up its legal front started in 2017 when former Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu ordered the fielding of at least one lawyer in each of the 140 Community Environment and Natural Resources Offices and 74 Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Offices nationwide for immediate and meaningful services at the community and provincial levels.
Sampulna explained the move will particularly strengthen and speed up the resolution of lower-level cases, including land claims and disputes, which form the bulk of cases handled by the DENR.
A total of 814 reversion cases are presently filed by the DENR with the courts nationwide, 484 of which involve land titles found to be within classified forestland.
Another 429 land titles are presently undergoing assessment by DENR lawyers prior to filing of reversion cases before the courts.
DENR Legal Affairs Service Director Atty. Norlito A. Eneran said the DENR does not have the power to cancel these titles like the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). Instead, it has to file reversion cases in court.
“Reversion cases are laborious and a long process, especially so if these lands are already occupied,” Eneran said, noting that only the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) is allowed to file reversion cases based on the documents from the DENR.
Eneran said DENR lawyers are deputized by the OSG as counsels for the government in reversion cases. ###
