File complaints to fight corruption

THE new director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 7 urged the private sector to report to her any wrongdoing in the agency and she will act on it immediately.

DENR 7 Emma Melana said the thrust of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte is fighting corruption in public service.

“Our DENR secretary (Gina Lopez) is enjoining civil society organizations (CSOs) to file complaints on malpractices or lack of services in the front line offices,” Melana said.

Melana rose from the ranks until she was chosen to head the DENR 7 after Isabelo Montejo was appointed as DENR undersecretary.

She said any complaint could be emailed to reddenr@yahoo.com.

She said a good complaint should have complete details, such as location, names of DENR officials or employees, nature of the transaction, and time and date when the alleged wrongdoing happened.

“We can remind our front line service personnel to do more to serve the public better,” Melana said.

The complaints DENR has been receiving include illegal titling of lands and DENR personnel conniving with violators of environmental laws.

Tree planting

DENR focuses on the implementation of the national greening program (NGP) through tree planting and growing all over the country.

Melana said the issuance of land patent titles by DENR has increased, which helped local government units raise their tax collections.

She said they had the Land Administration and Management Project (LAMP) assisted by Australia in improving regional applications.

Melana also reported that DENR 7 has complete cadastral survey in the re- gion with identified lots per barangay.

She said local officials are now educated about the importance of land titling.

“Local officials now realize that if the lands are issued titles, the real estate taxes will increase. It will improve revenue collection,” Melana said.

Complete

As of November 2016, Melana said DENR 7 is 124 percent complete as far as its target is concerned.

But she said the good thing in Region 7 is that most of the lands are small, unlike in other provinces where lands in haciendas are surveyed at 100 hectares and above.

The only problem in Region 7 is that several people were able to secure titles for lands that they don’t own.

Melana said correcting it is a long process. She cited as example a case filed by real land owners three years ago, which has just been decided on recently.