Good morning to everyone, our esteemed speakers, participants and partners for the environment.

Let me start out by saying that when I began in this administration, I stressed perhaps five points:

The first one, is that all decision-making should be evidence-driven. Therefor the science and technology and engineering knowledge that would have gone into all the decision of the Department need to be present in order for there to be concurrence on actions and decisions-making.

Secondly, the challenges we face in the Department are systemic. The risks themselves are systemic, therefore transdisciplinary knowledge, assessment, methodologies and values need to prevail in all decision-making.

The third one is that there will always be a need to make the Department, as mentioned by Usec Cuna, people, programs and products fit for purpose, and they represent the values for which we want the Department to represent – integrity, technical expertise, and commitment to public service. This means that the processes that we always will need to take into consideration are necessarily iterative. They will need to be consultative and participative, thus we began on a journey to actually consult with our stakeholders. This began with three major regional stakeholder events for Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao. This also will be furthered by the policy review process, which this will actually be a part of. And third, we have already begun to organize a multi-sector advisory council for each of our bureaus so that the work can actually be informed by the different stakeholder interest that they need to represent.

The country’s 8-point socioeconomic agenda focuses on ensuring food security, improving infrastructure, and creating green jobs by pursuing a green and blue economy and establishing livable and sustainable communities. The livability of communities shall be pursued along three outcomes: social environment promoted, environmental quality improved, and built environment upgraded guided by the principles of equity, inclusivity, resilience and sustainability.

Economic transformation that is targeted under the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 also wants to enhance resilience of communities and ecosystems to natural hazards and climate change, and fosters enabling business environment to increase public-private partnerships in multiple sectors, all of which must redound to the national level that is public good.

This forum is a clarificatory process in support of policy. We said in the beginning that this consultative process will address specific issues, reclamation is one of them, water is another, mining is yet another. And in the future, due to decisions that were taken in the past and both regional and global volatility and uncertainties, we need to consider all of the risks that we face as systemic, not least of which is climate change. It’s our role to ensure that our core mandates to protect, preserve our ecosystems, and enhance our environments must be for the benefit of all.

We are all aware that we have a moratorium on reclamation. Presidential Directive No. 2022-016 issued on 12 April 2022 directs the DENR and the PRA to put on hold the acceptance of all new applications for reclamation projects and ensure that pending applications strictly comply with all requirements. We aim to follow this particular directive, and we aim to also apply new tools and technologies for observation, monitoring, and evaluation to this mandate.

Moreover, EO 74 provides that no reclamation project shall be approved without an Area Clearance and Environmental Compliance Certificate to be issued by the DENR. The DENR shall ensure transparency and inclusivity in the conduct of the Environmental Impact Assessment. This necessarily means that anything generated at the local level by the local government must be linked to whatever project is being proposed thus the CLUP, the proposal, the regional development plan and the national development plan must be coherent.

It also requires that reclamation projects to be evaluated based on their cumulative impacts rather than on a specific project basis. The public purpose and value must also be established by these developments from the start. It is important to note at this point, that the ECCs that were issued under the previous administration on reclamation projects pertain to land development alone, and future vertical development is yet to be determined.

It is in the context of all of the above that we acknowledge that reclamation has environmental, social and economic impacts, both positive and negative. This is a two-part forum that is looking for net-positive solutions to our challenges. Among other questions that will be asked: Where are we today on this issue? Can reclamation be done safely and sustainably? If so, how can environmental and social issues be mitigated and benefits be ensured? What scientific, knowledge and governance processes are in place that can address the conflicting priorities and interests, potential, immediate and long-term impacts as well?

Reclamation is an environmental issue that the DENR wants to immediately address from a lens that considers the intersectionality of both physical and social geographies and the costs and benefits thereof.

An integrated and systems lens will be applied to environments such as the case for example of Manila Bay where fisheries and water-based livelihoods, water quality, biodiversity, flooding and subsidence are dynamically interacting. It is critical to note that onshore considerations such as the ongoing rehabilitation plan mandated by the Supreme Court and that the sources of critical utilities such as water and power systems for proposed projects have not yet been determined. Amidst these considerations is the impact on international and inter-island shipping as they make their way to ports.

The complexity and uncertainty due to climate change and compounding risks must also be factored in. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report has warned that the Asia-Pacific region “will witness increased losses in coastal settlements and infrastructure due to flooding caused by unavoidable sea-level rise.” We all know that the Philippines is among the countries that is experiencing, at least in the urban area, the highest level of sea-level rise as well as being compounded by subsidence.
We are a vulnerable country due to extreme weather and slow onset events as well. Economic development must mean the coastal and urban climate and disaster resilience is needed in order to de-risk our investments for generations to come.

We have focused on the technical and governance aspects of reclamation in this forum. The science must be established before pursuing any reclamation project and we have invited technical experts to shed more light to the environmental and social considerations and safeguards that are required. We are fortunate to have a speaker form Singapore’s Jurong Town Corporation who can provide perspective on internationally good practices. For governance, our panelists will be identifying challenges and gaps to promote transparency and accountability in the regulatory functions of government.

The DENR is reviewing all of these matters and information in support of refining policies that guide reclamation for the consideration of the executive and legislative bodies of our government. We are seeking early participation and greater involvement in any reclamation decision instead of being last, the fourth, the fifth step in the process to ensure that environmental and social safeguards are in place.

We are pleased to be holding the experts forum today as a manifestation of our commitment to multi-stakeholder consultation and inclusivity. We believe that inputs from all sectors are valuable for us to deliver on our mandate. The knowledge and information from communities and stakeholders, experts in practice, and science are affected by environmental and social issues that give us an insight on what we will need in terms of evidence that will reform the policies that we have at the moment.

I have said this in earlier dialogues – that the DENR is here to listen with the hope that listening will result in change in process and policy, and possibly in people. We have noted the issues on reclamation previously raised such as impacts on livelihoods, food security, and fisheries resources; inadequate public consultation and monitoring; and the need for systematic reforms are among the challenges we face among others. We hope the discussions today will provide more evidence and recommendations for the changes that we want to see.

Just for the information of all, this will be the first of possibly a two-part series as mentioned early by Usec Cuna, and we will give an opportunity for the private sector and other stakeholders in the NGO community to also serve on the panel. We have some of the reactors that you see here today also being part of that discussion.

I look forward to a meaningful dialogue at this forum towards a much-needed policy reform on reclamation in the country.

Thank you.