DENR region head defends chief’s work vs corruption

LUCENA CITY—The head of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the Calabarzon (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon) region on Monday defended Environment Secretary Ramon Paje Jr. from critics demanding the secretary’s ouster.

Nilo Tamoria, DENR Calabarzon regional executive director, said at the start of the Aquino administration Paje “had done so much to clean the department’s tarnished image” and ordered a massive campaign against illegal logging.

In a statement sent to the Inquirer, Tamoria also said the purge of corrupt DENR men has led to the relief and suspension of unscrupulous personnel.

He said the DENR has been rotating personnel every two weeks “in key choke points such as in Umiray and in the boundary of Quezon and Aurora.”

Last week, the Commission on Appointments deferred the confirmation of Paje for the second time due to strong opposition from his critics, notably Sierra Madre activist Fr. Pete Montallana.

Montallana, chair of the Save Sierra Madre Network, a multisectoral alliance of forest protection advocates, called on President Aquino to let go of Paje and replace him with a real environmentalist.

The priest claimed Paje, who was environment undersecretary before he was appointed secretary, failed to stop rampant corruption in DENR offices in Quezon, Aurora, Isabela and Central Luzon.

Tamoria, however, said the DENR led anti-illegal logging operations in Sierra Madre from July 2010 to July this year that resulted in the seizure of more than 5 million board feet of illegally cut lumber and equipment used in illegal logging.