New DENR chief to fight corruption, climate change effects

Newly appointed Environment Secretary Ramon Jesus Paje said on Friday that he will eradicate corruption inside the department and implement programs to mitigate the effects of climate change. Measures to eliminate corruption in all levels of the department will be immediately implemented, Paje said in a press conference held after the turnover rites at the department’s central office in Quezon City. “I will implement well-defined and effective anti-corruption measures in the department. We will remove the playground for graft. We will put stop lights in those playgrounds," he told reporters. Paje’s anti-corruption drive in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is in line with President Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III’s plan to rid the bureaucracy of corruption during his six-year term. Paje, the former DENR Undersecretary for Mines and Geosciences, was formally named by Aquino as the new environment head last Tuesday, along with the rest of his Cabinet. [http://www.gmanews.tv/story/194715/noynoy-names-cabinet-execs-senior-government-officials] The new DENR chief likewise said that he will immediately order the use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in all department offices in the next 30 days to ensure transparency in all transactions. “There will be a singleness of purpose as in all of President Aquino’s programs, to do it quickly and effectively," he said in his speech during the turnover ceremonies. Paje also plans to implement an “honest-to-goodness" program to mitigate the effects of climate change in the country and complete geomapping by 2011. “I also proposed that we should implement an honest-to-goodness climate change mitigation, adaptation and anticipation program as well as complete geohazard mapping," he said. He likewise said he will continue implementing the Clear Air and Clean Water Acts, as well as the appropriation of legal benefits to environment stakeholders. Paje is scheduled to meet with the department’s legal counsels next week to determine ways to force environmental violators to “clean up their own mess." - ACC, RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV