LGUs for climate action plans By Danny O. Calleja LEGAZPI CITY, Jan. 24 (PNA) – City Mayor Noel Rosal has enjoined Bicol cities and other local government units (LGUs) in the region to take advantage of the fund being made available by the national government for the implementation of their Local Climate Change Action Plans (LCCAPs)., Rosal, who is regional representative to the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) and a staunch advocate of disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM), on Saturday said LGUs should tap the People’s Survival Fund (PSF) to solve the woes of climate change impacts in their respective localities once and for all. The PSF is a special fund for financing climate change adaptation programs and projects of local governments and communities amounting to Php1 billion being made available through the Climate Change Commission pursuant to Republic Act (RA) 10174, which amended RA 9729 otherwise known as the Climate Change Act of 2009. RA 10174 establishes the PSF to provide long-term finance streams to enable the government to efficiently address the problem of climate change under the Philippine Agenda 21 framework, which espouses sustainable development, to fulfill human needs while maintaining the quality of the natural environment for current and future generations. “Towards this end, the State adopts the principle of protecting the climate system for the benefit of humankind, on the basis of climate justice or common but differentiated responsibilities and the Precautionary Principle to guide decision-making in climate risk management,” it declares. Hence, the PSF is accessible to LGUs including provinces which have formulated their LCCAPs and adopted by their respective legislative bodies. This requirement is mandated under Memorandum Circular 2014-135 dated Oct. 21, 2014 issued by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG); Department of Budget (DBM)-CCC-DILG Joint Memorandum Circular 2014-01 dated Aug. 7, 2014; and Local Budget Memorandum No. 68 dated July 1, 2014 issued by the DBM, Rosal said. The LCCAP is a stand-alone document enabling LGUs to mainstream and climate-proof their vulnerable communities as it serves as their guide in properly identifying budget indicatives for cross-cutting sub-sectors not only on land use but also encompassing coastal, health, agriculture, water, forestry, biodiversity, energy, education, tourism, infrastructure, information technology, settlement and mining. This document completely unburdens LGUs from their difficulties in re-engineering and re-calibrating their capacities as well as increases their competencies in planning and implementing all aspects of mainstreaming climate change adaptation and disaster risk and vulnerability reduction, according to Rosal. LCCAP is also the output of practical learning experiences and best working practices of LGUs that source their actual data by first-hand processing of information for valid and tangible programs using the “Bottom-Up” Approach and “no regret option” without wasting any fund contrary to the “Top-to-Bottom” fashion, he explained. As front liners in the promotion of climate change adaptation measures and strategies, LGUs must undergo the training workshop provided by the Local Climate Change Adaptation for Development (LCCAD) in complementary partnership with the Local Government Academy (LGA) of the DILG, the city government here and the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) regional office, in the case of Bicol. The LCCAD is a non-government service provider and climate change adaptation practitioner commissioned by the DILG-LGA to train LGUs through mentoring and coaching to increase their capacities, abilities and competencies in formulating their LCCAPs. LCCAP resident trainer and LCCAD executive director Manuel “Nong” Rangasa, meanwhile, warned LGUs or any entity that may assume their LCCAPs and make them part of their existing policies that could prejudice their chances of availing the PSF. “The LGUs must insist on the stand-alone nature of their LCCAPs because that is the mandate of existing laws,” Rangasa stressed. The LCCAP is a milestone in policy development and governance totally different from any other plan because it revisits, redefines, integrates, mainstreams and vertically and horizontally aligns cross sectors to existing plans and activities, he said. These activities include the Executive-Legislative Agenda, Annual Investment Plans, Comprehensive Development Plans, Comprehensive Land Use Plans, Provincial Development Investment Plans and Provincial Physical Framework and Development Plans to Regional Development Plan and the National Development Planning Level, according to Rangasa. On the part of this city, Rosal said, it has based its LCCAP, now being processed for submission to the CCC, on its DRRM good practices which won for the city government the national championship in the search for 2013 Gawad Kalasag (GK) of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC). GK is a nationwide award given yearly by the NDRRMC in recognition of excellence in disaster risk reduction and management and humanitarian assistance. >Kalasag stands for Kalamidad at Sakuna, Labanan, Sariling Galing ang Kaligtasan. The city is vying for its second GK award as it has been named as last year’s regional champion in the City DRRM Council Category to once again represent Bicol in the national competition whose winners will be known early this year. (PNA) RMA/FGS/DOC/CBD/SSC pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=8&sid=&nid=8&rid=728759 Funds await
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 12:14:43 +0000
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