Ben Contreras
DEPARTMENT of Environment and atural Resources (DENR) Undersecretary for Field Operations Arthur Valdez visited the city unannounced and upon invitation of former priest Alfredo Albor who was representing the indigenous people in a gathering dubbed Alliance of United Indigenous People of Mindanao.
It was Ada Estefa, the trusted aide of Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, who contacted Ralph Abragan because someone from Manila would like to meet him to talk about environmental issues. At the place of the good archbishop, we (Ralph brought me along) were able to get acquainted with Al Albor and got invited to the gathering the following day.
We’ve been trying to reach out to Environment Secretary Gina Lopez without success. Since we were informed that DENR Undersecretary Valdez is coming and that we would be introduced to him, we thought it would be a good start to present our concerns to him.
At the venue of the gathering, Albor introduced us to Valdez. After hearing our concerns, Valdez asked why we didn’t bring these matters to DENR regional director Ruth Tawantawan. Madame Ruth, for unknown reasons, had been silent on my challenge for an investigation into the quarrying business in the city. Thus, Valdez made a phone call to Madame Ruth to give us an audience together with the datus on Monday (Sept. 20, 2016).
Before the meeting with Madame Ruth that morning, I was informed that an uninvited person in the gathering of datus served a warning about my person to discredit me. Well, I was not surprised at all knowing him, not even when another suddenly appeared in the gathering.
At around 10 am, we were ushered in to Madame Ruth’s new, big and elegant office. Together with Albor and a few datus, we were able to take up some long concerns. I would rather not go into the details but wait for concrete results as expected by Undersecretary Valdez. Valdez made a strong warning to DENR officials who do not perform: “I can and will remove even officials of an entire region if they don’t perform.”
Madame Ruth was all ears and very accommodating like the way she was in her early days in this region. We are looking forward to more interaction with the DENR office.
(A bit of good news, Madame Ruth has just been promoted to CESO III. Congratulations, Madame!)
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After two busy weeks, it’s nice to be back, refreshed.
The enormity of the drug problem has compelled President Duterte to announce an extension of his promised six-month period of eradicating the drug problem in the country. And his political enemies and critics readily capitalized on it with jeers and taunting remarks. With their mindset, what can you really expect? We are not known for crab mentality for nothing.
The President has not even made any headway on the fight against corruption in the government despite rumors that certain people have been given special mission to help in this regard.
Corruption in local governments still persists in some areas. They seem to ignore the President’s warning. Somebody warned that we should not doubt the resolve of the President to go after these corrupt officials.
Time will tell, and I see it coming.
