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Pangasinan, Negros Oriental LGUs support EU-La Liga project on localized MDGs |
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 BUSINESS MIRROR MARCH 24, 2010 OFFICIALS of concerned local government units (LGUs) in the provinces of Pangasinan and Negros Oriental have expressed full support and cooperation for the successful implementation of a two-year European Union-funded project on localized Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the two provinces.
Alaminos City mayor Hernani Braganza, Bani mayor Marcelo Navarro Jr. and Burgos mayor Domingo Doctor Jr., all in the province of Pangasinan and Sibulan mayor Antonio Renacia, Dauin mayor Rodrigo A. Alanano and La Libertad mayor Lawrence Limkaichong Jr. viewed the inclusion of their towns as a welcome development saying it will boost their on-going initiatives in their localities. |
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‘Partial failure of elections can make Speaker Arroyo acting president’ |
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 NEWSBREAK March 9, 2010 MANILA, Philippines--Whistleblower Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada on Tuesday reiterated warnings of a partial failure of elections that could allow President Arroyo to extend her term in Malacañang.
This can happen in a scenario where the local elections are successful, but the poll machines fail to transmit the results for the national seats, Lozada told Newsbreak on the sidelines of the La Liga Policy institute forum on the credibility of the automated elections. Read more here. |
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Fund lack aiding failure to defend RP nature reserves |
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MANILA BULLETIN March 5, 2010 Lack of sufficient funds has hampered the country's vow to rehabilitate denuded forests and defend the marine environment.
This terse assessment was issued Friday by the La Liga Policy Institute (La Liga), which has long been associated with campaigns to sustain the country's protected parks and coral reeds.
At the same time, La Liga lashed out at the unbridled development in supposedly protected areas as contributory to the imminent extinction of endangered species in the Philippines, La Liga environment campaigner Jonathan Ronquillo said. Read more here. |
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March 5, 2010 Another area where the current administration may have failed is in stopping the unabated degradation of the environment. According to the private think-tank La Liga Policy Institute, the government has not properly funded programs for the rehabilitation of the country’s denuded forests and marine environment.
Proof of this, according to La Liga, is the paltry P474.8 million budget set aside for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ programs for protected areas and wildlife management for 2010. Originally, the group said, the executive department only proposed a budget of P299.8 for these programs, but the efforts of environment advocates in and outside Congress resulted in the P175 million increase. Read more here. |
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"Climate Justice: After COP 15, What's Next?" Forum held on UST |
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 Last February 24, 2010, the La Liga Policy Institute, in partnership with Batas Tomasino, and UST-Student’s Organization Coordinating Council (SOCC), held a forum entitled “Climate Justice: After COP 15, What’s Next?” on the University of Santo Tomas, Civil Law Auditorium. This event was attended by over 180 participants, comprised mostly of students coming from various faculties and majors in UST.
Speakers for this forum include Mr. Isagani R. Serrano, President of the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement and one of the members of the “Conference of Parties 15” (COP15) Official Delegation in Copenhagen last December 2009, and Mr. Reagan John A. Gabriel, an Environment and Budget Campaigner of the La Liga Policy Institute. |
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Budget maneuvers point to poll funds |
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THE DAILY TRIBUNE February 7, 2010 LLPI learned from the DBM that the P1 billion budget for forest management under Arroyo’s Comprehensive Livelihood Emergency Employment Program (CLEEP) only needed Arroyo’s final word to be released or downloaded to concerned government agencies, Jonathan Ronquillo, Environment Campaigner of La Liga, said.
Arroyo, who promised the P1-billion budget last year with the P110 million budget for the development and rehabilitation of some of the country’s protected areas and national parks, and P20 million budget for each of two very important wildlife conservation projects for 2009, would likely subject these to a veto, Ronquillo said. Read more here. |
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NGO hits Palace on budget for crucial conservation projects |
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MANILA BULLETIN January 13, 2010 Malacañang continued to keep the P40-million budget that Congress had allocated last year for the conservation of the tamaraw and the pawikan.
In exposing the irregular impoundment of the money that should have been shared equally by the Tamaraw Conservation Project and the Pawikan Conservation Project, Jonathan Ronquillo, environment campaigner of La Liga Policy Institute (La Liga), insisted the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has stashed the money away for reasons his organization can not fathom. Read more here. |
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MANILA STANDARD TODAY January 13, 2010 Environmental advocates have warned that efforts to protect the Philippines’ dwindling forest cover may have been sabotaged by the refusal of the Department of Budget and Management to release last year’s appropriated funds for a key emergency program that seeks to hire “green-collar” workers. Up to now, the budget department still hasn’t approved the release of P1 billion for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Comprehensive Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program, the non-government organization La Liga Policy Institute said. Read more here. |
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Palace impounds P1B for CLEEP |
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BUSINESS MIRROR January 12, 2010 THE P1 billion earmarked by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for President Arroyo’s Comprehensive Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (CLEEP) was reportedly “impounded” by Malacañang.
Budget activists belonging to the La Liga Policy Institute (LLPI) revealed that the amount was supposed to be released as early as the first half of 2009 to fund various programs and projects related to forest management and to boost government effort to mitigate climate change. Read more here. |
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Group warns against use of reenacted budget to boost admin bets |
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BUSINESS MIRROR January 5, 2010 BUDGET activists warned on Monday that Malacañang may again transfer funds intended for social and economic services for election purposes following President Arroyo’s inaction on the Congress-approved P1.541-trillion national budget for 2010.
Jonathan Ronquillo, environment campaigner of the nongovernment organization La Liga Policy Institute (LLPI), said running the government under a reenacted budget even for a short period in an election year is very dangerous because it gives President Arroyo power to use the budget for whatever she decides, including programs and projects that will benefit the candidacy of administration candidates, including herself. Read more here. |
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Budget activists warn vs GMA’s veto |
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BUSINESS MIRROR
December 22, 2009  BUDGET activists warned on Wednesday that President Arroyo might reject Congress’s amendments to the already passed P1.541-trillion 2010 national budget or again impose a conditional veto of certain items considered important to improve social and economic services, particularly in health, education, agriculture and the environment.
Former national treasurer Leonor Magtolis Briones, lead convener of Social Watch Philippines, which organized the Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI), said Congress’s passage of the national budget is a welcome development, considering that some of civil society’s alternative budget proposals were adopted. Read more here. |
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Security reforms proposed to arrest political killings in Philippines |
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 ABS-CBN NEWSBREAK
December 9, 2009 MANILA, Philippines - Policy reforms in the Philippines are needed after martial law was imposed in Maguindanao following the massacre of 57 innocent civilians last November 23, the country's worst election-related violence and worst single mass murder of journalists worldwide. This was the message of speakers in the forum “Massacre, Martial Law, Maguindanao: What’s Next?” organized by the La Liga Policy Institute, a non-government organization which undertakes policy studies on development and poverty alleviation. Read more here. |
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Violence, martial law in Maguindanao: The dynamics of ‘collaboration and conflict’ |
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 December 9, 2009 The eruption of violence and the declaration of martial law in Maguindanao expose the dynamics of collaboration and conflict between allies in conditions of war, Francisco Lara, Jr., a Research Associate at the Crisis States Research Center, Development Studies Institute, London School of Economics and Fellow of La Liga Policy Institute said.
According to Lara, without such backdrop, the declaration of martial law is “baseless, unnecessary, and rife with hidden agendas.”
Speaking at a forum dubbed “Massacre, Martial Law, Maguindanao… What’s Next?” at the Quezon City Sports Club Wednesday, Lara questioned the need for government to declare martial law in Maguindanao, when in fact the province has been under a de-facto military rule over the past two weeks, since the brutal mass murder committed against family members of a well-known political clan and members of the media on November 23, 2009 in Ampatuan town. |
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Hundred Islands protected from partition, says group |
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PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER November 28, 2009 ALAMINOS CITY—Mayor Hernani Braganza said city government officials did not abandon their responsibility and quietly opposed the measure that seeks to declare one of the biggest islands of the Hundred Islands National Park as alienable and disposable.
“We strongly opposed the bill, although we did it quietly. We are against that move,” Braganza told reporters recently when asked why it took a Metro Manila-based nongovernment organization to challenge House Bill No. 4995. Read more here. |
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Proposal to split up Hundred Islands bucked |
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MANILA BULLETIN November 27, 2009 Environmental laws are enacted to ensure protection, conservation and sustainable management of the environment and natural resources, and they are not a license to exploit the environment for doing so is “grossly illegal.” This was the reaction of La Liga Policy Institute (La Liga) to the proposed bill, House Bill 4995, seeking to “chop-chop” one of the big islands within the Hundred Islands National Park (HINP). Read more here. |
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