Tackling environmental woes a priority issue among LGUs
By Jesus F. Llanto
Newsbreak
Saturday, 25 April 2009
The need to protect the environment is not lost on local government units (LGUs), but lack of enough funds to implement programs and local laws are getting in the way of their green campaign.
Sharing their experiences at a forum Thursday, local chief executives said a number of LGUs have crafted local environment codes to monitor land conversion and extraction of natural resources and to address illegal fishing, illegal logging, and deforestation.
However, they have yet to fully enforce these laws because of financial constraints.
Masbate Gov. Elisa Olga Kho said that most LGUs already allocate a huge slice of their internal revenue allotment and local revenues on health services and infrastructure.
Kho told Newsbreak that illegal fishing is a concern in her province, but they do not have enough money to buy equipment and mobilize personnel to guard municipal waters against illegal commercial fishers.
Masbate’s local environment code was approved in 2000 and it has provisions that mandate the creation of the Provincial Office on Environment and Natural Resources Management and the delineation of the municipal water boundaries.
