MANILA (PNA) — The Climate Change Commission (CCC) may be lacking in budgetary support yet it has certainly delivered, CCC Vice Chairman Secretary Heherson T. Alvarez said in a Senate hearing on the euro 150 million (P10.5 billion) foreign loan from Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) by the previous administration.

At the Senate inquiry conducted by the Oversight Committee on Climate Change on Tuesday, the former senator and environment secretary strongly denied that loans related to the government’s climate change program have been spent by the new agency that he now heads.

“There have been no loans whatsoever extended to this Commission. When the loan agreement was consummated, we were barely organized and were occupied with the drafting of the IRR and the Framework Strategy,” Alvarez stressed.

Alvarez thanked Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile for providing the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Climate Change (OPACC), the precursor of the CCC, a P45-million budget in the 2009 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

DBM meanwhile allocated only 27 co-terminus personnel for OPACC.

“However, Mr. President, only Php36 million was released to us by DBM. For 2010, Congress again allocated P45 million for our operations but from January to date, only P5.8 million has been released to us,” he stressed.

He also thanked Senator Loren Legarda for a P100-million fund for the Commission in the 2010 GAA and a P50-million start-up fund under Republic Act 9729 or the Climate Change Act of 2009.

“But all these funds, Php150 million in total, have been put on hold. The Commission has been subsisting on the unutilized budget of OPACC under the 2010 GAA,” Alvarez said.

“Since July until today,” he added, “the Commission’s budget releases have been put withheld. Nevertheless, the Commission has delivered its mandates ahead of schedule.”

Alvarez also explained that with an expanded mandate under RA 9729, the Commission has already submitted to the DBM and the Senate its budget proposal of P195 million operating fund for 2011, with an increased plantilla of 58 personnel.

He said since RA 9729 was signed into law on October 23, 2009, the Commission has accomplished two of its major deliverables, the implementing rules and regulations (IRR), the National Framework Strategy on Climate Change (NFSCC), while its third mandate, the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP), is now in the works.

“The IRR and NFSCC were approved by the Commission acting as a collegial body, and signed by the Commissioners, with President Arroyo as chair and witnessed by Cabinet Secretaries as members of our Advisory Board,” Alvarez said.

The IRR was signed on January 20, 2010 days ahead of the January 23 deadline, and after six consultation sessions and referendum with government agencies, NGOs and CSOs.

Meanwhile, the NFSCC was signed in the Commission Meeting on April 28 in Puerto Princesa City, a month before the May 25 deadline, and after 28 multi-sectoral consultations nationwide.

“To ensure the participation of the grassroots level, we partnered with the Climate Change Congress of the Philippines (CCCP), a social arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippine (CBCP) led by Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, for the six national consultations in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao,” Alvarez added.

He said the drafting of the National Action Plan, due in April 2011, is now in progress and the CCC has line-up the necessary activities for its completion, including nationwide multi-sectoral consultations.

Alvarez also briefed the Senators on the progress of international negotiations for the drafting of a new legally-binding agreement by December in Cancun, Mexico at the 16th Conference of Parties (COP-16) to replace the Kyoto Protocol that will expire by 2012.

“A timely emissions reduction target by Annex 1 countries is an uphill battle. Developing countries demand targets in line with the recommendations of the science community, and I have asked President Aquino to reiterate our Philippine position of ‘deep and early cuts’ to reflect a decisive cut of 30 percent or more to reduce the destructive impacts of climate change upon our vulnerable archipelagic landscape,” he said.

Alvarez informed the body of his formal meeting with Ms. Christiana Figueres, the new Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC and personally delivered a congratulatory letter of President Aquino.

“During the meeting, we have arranged with the UNFCCC Secretariat our possible access to support from the Adaptation Fund of the Kyoto Protocol and to the new US0 billion fund being organized by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for adaptation.

Ms. Figueres expressed support for the Philippine initiatives,” he said.

RA 9729 mandates the CCC to represent the country in the climate negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Alvarez, who heads the Philippine delegation, attended the latest meeting last August 2 to 6 in Bonn, Germany.