MANILA – Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Benjamin Diokno vowed to provide funding for environmental projects until 2022, following the success of the Duterte administration’s first greening program.
In his speech during the launch and recognition program for the “Green, Green, Green” project Monday, Diokno said officials of local government units (LGUs) “demonstrated their ability to think creatively and be resourceful.”
The program, which covers all LGUS, aims to ensure that all cities and municipalities nationwide have open spaces that are livable and sustainable. These spaces include pocket forests parks, arboretum, and botanical garden.
For this year, the program has a PHP2.589-billion budget and allocation is 50-50 based on LGU’s population and land area.
Diokno said to date, there are about 143 projects for approval and bulk or 60 of these are public parks, 30 waterfronts, 21 public squares and plazas, 16 streetscapes, 13 institutional open spaces, and two mangrove parks.
He said the Local Government Code (LGC) requires all cities to provide parks.
He also noted that the newly-released National Urban Development Framework “promotes the adequate network of open spaces to be implemented through the comprehensive land use guidelines.”
With this program, he said the department has set up a technical review unit “to oversee the effective utilization of the fund, working with local staff to improve designs.”
“We will continue offering the LGUs learning opportunities as we explore partnerships with the private sector, academe, and international institutions,” he said.
Diokno added that of the 77 cities included in the program’s initial year of implementation, about 2.65 percent registered an average increase in the amount of public open space, excluding roadways.
“The average estimated number of beneficiaries is 55,000 people per site with some projected to reach up to 300,000 people every day,” he said.
“With all of the milestones we’ve accomplished, I can’t help but be convinced that this is a worthwhile venture and investment. And so, DBM plans to fund this program every year of the administration until the tides have turned, and public space is no longer an aspiration but a given,” he added. (Joann Villanueva/PNA)
