The La Liga Policy Institute (La Liga) has called on incoming President Benigno Aquino III to adopt climate-sensitive, low-carbon policies and programs under the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) and achieve environmental sustainability.

La Liga said this is needed if the country wants to comply with the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) targets under the United Nations- Millennium Declaration.

La Liga environment campaigner Jonathan Ronquillo said the incoming Aquino administration should recognize climate change as an urgent national development issue that needs to be integrated in the overall government’s “3 Ps” or policies, programs and pondo (fund).

La Liga presented its paper entitled “Not Much Time, But Not Without Options: A Review of the Philippines’ Progress on Achieving the MDG 7” during a round table discussion at the Balay Kalinaw at the University of the Philippines-Diliman campus on Wednesday.

It underscored the need for a citizens’ movement to come together to engage government agencies involved in the environment and natural resources sector in formulating their respective priority programs and budgets was underscored.

The paper is La Liga’s “shadow report” of the environment of the past decade, an assessment on how the Philippine government fared in pursuing its commitment to achieve the MDG 7 by 2015.

According to the study, there is a need to update the Philippine environment baseline, which calls for government’s substantial investment in a comprehensive updating of baseline environment condition using current available technology.

La Liga said there is a need to know the up-to-date status of the country’s ecosystem in order to make the necessary recommendations for the government’s “3Ps.”

“Apart from knowing the vulnerable areas, an updated baseline can provide key inputs for climate change adaptation and mitigation initiatives,” the paper said.

According to Ronquillo, considering that the country is badly missing its MDG targets, there is a need to institutionalize policies and programs and appropriate funding in the MTPDP.

La Liga, moreover, said there’s a need to professionalize the enforcement, regulation and monitoring policies on the environment. Effective enforcement, regulation and monitoring of environmental policies is severely lacking mainly due to the customary rent-seeking culture that breeds in the system of securing permits, licenses and concessions to exploit the country’s natural resources, the study said.

“Professional management of these policies founded on fairness, transparency and accountability should be the norm instead of political accommodation, patronage and transactional politics. If the government can be as effective in enforcing these policies as much as they have been in enacting them, substantial reforms for the environment will have a better chance,” the paper said.

Moreover, La Liga said increasing support to LGU cluster approach to environment sustainability is crucial to ensure that LGU stakeholders will co-equally and collectively manage and formulate plans for the natural resources with the end view sharing the mutual benefit from the country’s national wealth.