The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said it has ensured to provide its fair share of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) assistance even though it is not tasked to address health and social welfare concerns.
Addressing suggestions that the budget used for the overlaying of crushed dolomite on the Manila Bay beachfront should have been used to feed poor families who were left hungry due to the pandemic, the DENR said it had done its part in a different way—by returning 10 percent of its 2020 budget in support of the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act or the Republic Act (RA) 11469.
Ten percent of its 2020 budget amounts to ₱1,436,797,000.
It also said that DENR’s central and regional offices and bureaus have initiated programs to support the government’s fight against COVID-19, with the assistance amounting to ₱19,546,193.96.
Employees also pooled donations to help Filipinos amid the pandemic. Their donations reached ₱69,568,180.80.
“These donations were utilized for the procurement of personal protective equipment, sanitation, and hygiene kits, food packs, and other necessary items given to frontliners and families affected by the lockdown, including DENR employees,” the DENR said.
Apart from monetary assistance, the department noted that DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu rendered service to help contain the COVID-19 crisis in Cebu and Bacolod.
“However, the DENR, DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways), Metro Manila Development Authority, Philippine Coast Guard, and other agencies tasked to rehabilitate the Manila Bay are not the Department of Health or the Department of Social Welfare and Development, which have the mandates to address health and social welfare concerns,” it added.
It said the DENR’s mandate is to use its manpower and other resources for the protection and conservation of the environment and natural resources, even in the midst of pandemic.
The DENR reiterated that the project’s implementation is “not untimely,” as it was approved by Congress under the 2019 General Appropriations Act.
“It underwent bidding under RA 9184 (the Government Procurement Reform Act), and the contract was awarded prior to the global pandemic. The government cannot simply stop a project when it is already under a contractual obligation to proceed,” it explained.
It added that the beach nourishment project was conceptualized, budgeted, and approved by the Department of Budget and Management in 2019, “when there was no incident yet of COVID-19 in the country.”
The DENR also denied claims that the project, estimated to cover 30,000 to 49,000 square meters of engineering work, was overpriced.
“One critic divided the ₱389 million budget by 500 linear meters, which is the length and not the area or scope of the engineering work; this erroneous computation resulted to ₱778,000 per meter,” the department pointed out.
It further explained that the budget should be divided by at least 30,000 square meters, the actual work coverage area. This will yield a cost of ₱12,967 per square meter, “which is quite reasonable.”
The DENR reiterated that only ₱28 million of the ₱389 million allocation was used to overlay the crushed dolomite sediments.
It said the ₱28 million covers not only the price of the crushed dolomite but the package also includes the cost of delivery from Cebu to Manila Bay.