The newly created Puerto Princesa City-Environmental Protection Task Force (PPC-EPTF) convened recently at the city hall and identified some priority actions, boosting collaborations among member government agencies, non-government organizations and civic groups in an effort to strengthen the environmental protection measures in the city.
City Mayor Lucilo R. Bayron issued the Executive Order No. 2020-43 last month, establishing the PPC-EPTF which is a multi-agency environmental protection body consisting of the city government, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), other government agencies, academe, and non-government organizations.
The city government said that the creation of the PPC-EPTF is consistent with its mandate to protect the city’s terrestrial, atmospheric, coastal and marine resources. In achieving this, the city emphasized the need “to institutionalize a cooperative and coordinated working relationship between and among departments, agencies, non-government organizations and educational institutions to strengthen the present support structures enforcing environmental protection throughout the archipelago and optimize government efforts, as government resources may permit, to more efficient and effective levels.”
The PPC-EPTF is chaired by the City Environment and Natural Resources Officer (ENRO), Atty. Carlo B. Gomez, while the three vice chairmen are Community Environment and Natural Resources Officer Forester Felizardo Cayatoc of the DENR, Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC) Executive Director Atty. Grizelda Mayo-Anda, and the Commander of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Western Command (WesCom).
The members are the Sangguniang Panlungsod’s Committee on Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, City Legal Office, City Agriculture’s Office, Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park (PPSRNP), City Information Office (CIO), the Philippine National Police (PNP) specifically the City PNP and the PNP’s Special Operations Unit (SOU)-Maritime Group, Department of Agriculture’s-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR), Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine Navy, Philippine Air Force, Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm (IPPF), Palawan State University (PSU), Western Philippine University (WPU), Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), Department of Education (DepEd)-City Schools Division, and the president of Liga ng mga Punong Barangay.
Non-government organizations, civic groups and other members that compose the PPC-EPTF are Palawan NGO Network Inc., ELAC, Institute for the Development of Educational and Ecological Alternatives Inc. (IDEAS), Palawan Center for Appropriate Rural Technology, Inc. (PCART), Conservation International Philippines Foundation Inc. (CI), World Wide Fund (WWF), Palawan Geographic Society, Inc (PGS), Palawan Biodiversity Conservation Advocates, Inc. (PBCA), Katala Foundation Inc. (KFI), Center for Sustainability Phil. (CS), Nagkakaisang Tribu sa Palawan, Inc. (NATRIPAL), Zoological Society of London (ZSL), BAHATALA Inc., Heaven’s
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