Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda has urged the Senate to expedite the passage into law of the proposed Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting Systems (PENCAS) Act to help guide the government integrate environmental inputs and outputs into national income accounts to help the country accurately reflect and determine its development and economic performance.
Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda sponsors Senate Bill No. (SBN) 2439 or the Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting Systems (PENCAS) Act during plenary session Wednesday, September 13, 2023. (Senate PRIB Photo)
Legarda, in her sponsorship of Senate Bill No. 2439, or the PENCAS bill, reiterated the importance of passing the bill especially at a time the country is battling the effects of climate change and unprecedented biodiversity loss following the strong typhoons and other natural calamities that hit the Philippines.
Under the bill, natural capital would be defined as stock of renewable and non-renewable resources, including plants, animals, air, water, soils, ores and minerals that provide a flow of benefits to people and living things.
These natural capital, she said, includes, but is not limited to ecosystem services such as air and water, filtration, flood protection, carbon sequestration, pollination of crops and habitats for wildlife.
“By institutionalizing a PENCAS, we hope to integrate environmental inputs and outputs in the determination of national income accounts to reflect a more accurate state of development and economic performance of the country,” Legarda said in presenting Committee Report No. 120 on the PENCAS bill last September 12.
“In addition to the Gross National Product (GNP) and other usual indicators, our citizens will be informed of nature’s contribution to the economy. Our bill shall ensure that we have a list of officially designated statistics on the depletion, degradation, and restoration of natural capital, environmental protection expenditures, pollution and quality of land, air and water, environmental damage and adjusted net savings,” she stressed.
Up to the typhoons of this year, Legarda noted that the government have accounted for billions in agricultural losses, but do not have the figures for damaged ecosystems.
She pointed out those very ecosystems would be the source of restoration and rehabilitation of the country’s agricultural systems.
“Restoration must use economic indicators that value more than just the incomes and ignore the destruction of our natural capital in supporting agriculture, generating revenues, and calculating what we risk losing if we do not invest in protection and resilience or, sadly what is actually lost,” she explained.
“Sa madaling salita, itama na po natin ang kwentahan nang nakikita ng malinaw ang kalikasan - kung ano ang halaga nito at kung ano ang nawawala kung bulag nga tayo rito (In other words, let’s correct the figures on what we see very clearly in the environment, how much worth, and what our losses are if we are really blind to this),” she pointed out.
“I could say this is probably the best time to institute this commonsensical approach to managing our national patrimony, but the true best time would have been when I first filed the Philippine Economic Environmental and Natural Resources Accounting (PEENRA) bill in 2007. We would have realized then what we have, what we stood to lose, the damage we stood to suffer, and we would have planned and invested accordingly,” Legarda lamented.
The senator noted the United Nations (UN) has been working on institutionalizing this for many years, starting with the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Central Framework adopted in 2012.
“This bill responds to the loud call of the times. It provides indicators that will integrate the concerns of nature in planning, policy making and budgeting, adopts the international standards under SEEA, and ensures interagency coordination to link natural capital information with the performance of agency mandates,” the Senate Pro Tempore said.
“The bill’s Declaration of Policy includes the recognition of natural ecosystems as an integral part of our patrimony and heritage, ensuring that our economy opens its eyes and reduce its blinders,” the lawmaker emphasized.
Other authors of the bill are Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva and Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.