DENR reports must now be under oath

Field officers of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) must swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

But it’s not to give testimony in court (at least not yet) but to comply with a new directive from Environment Secretary Ramon Paje, who now requires his officers to have their accomplishment reports “notarized” before submitting these to the main office.

Paje said the order would apply to all DENR regional executive directors and other field officials tasked to pursue the government’s five-year reforestation drive, also known as the National Greening Program (NGP).

The officers would have to go to a notary public and attest to the truthfulness of their reports, Paje said. Notarizing the documents, he said, would help the DENR churn out more accurate data for public consumption.

No lying

“The intention is also to raise the agency’s competence in providing accurate reports to our people and to the President,” the secretary said in a statement, adding that it is a “necessary measure” to improve transparency and accountability.

Lying under oath is punishable under the law.

Aside from the regional directors, the directive covers the heads of the DENR line bureaus, the provincial environment and natural resources officers and community environment and natural resources officers. So far, it applies only to reports relating to the NGP.

For COA validation

But it does not stop there. Paje said he would also submit the notarized reports to the Commission on Audit (COA) for validation.

“I expect concerned DENR officials to be more truthful and diligent in the preparation of their reports,” he stressed.

Paje assured the officers that the department would shoulder the cost of having their reports notarized.

The NGP is an attempt to recover the country’s vanishing forest cover through the planting of up to 1.5 billion trees nationwide from 2011 to 2016.

Earlier, Paje asked help from the COA in checking whatever happened to the 1.5 billion tree seedlings that supposedly would be produced for planting in 1.5 million hectares of forest land under the NGP.