6 out of 10 Pinoy satisfied with Aquino performance---PIA

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga --- In managing the environment, President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, earned positive results in the recently concluded nationwide performance survey conducted by the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), environment authorities here revealed.

Environment Secretary Ramon Paje, said environment issues were among those that gained the highest positive satisfaction rating for the third quarter of this year.

The President gained 61% satisfaction rating on guarding the environment, 64% on protecting endangered species and 57% for cleaning and clearing natural waterways, he said.

Paje, in his memorandum, urged all employees of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to continue to improve the delivery of public service and further strive for excellent performance.

He congratulate the men and women of DENR for their dedicated public service and commitment for the protection and conservation of the environment and natural resources.

The President also earned positive satisfaction rating on economic issues (63%-73%), good governance (73%-78%), social development (66%-67%) and security and justice (62%-81%).

The President’s overall performance rating was 69%, translates to nearly seven out of ten Filipinos satisfied with the performance of the Aquino administration.

According to PIA, the President’s performance is up by five percent from the survey conducted during the second quarter of this year.

In Central Luzon, environment officials are fast tracking the implementation of Pres. Aquino’s tree-growing program, dubbed as the National Greening Program (NGP).

Since the NGP was launched this year, more than 5,000 hectares of denuded watersheds in the region were already planted with various forest trees like Narra, Acacia, Mahogany, Gmelina and Eucalyptus, said Ricardo Calderon, Regional Executive Director of DENR in Region 3.

Indigenous fruit trees like Rambutan, Chico, Guayabano, Mango and Rambutan were also planted along lower slopes of watersheds, which could be a source of livelihood for upland communities in the near future, he said.

“NGP is a priority program of the government that will address the intertwining issues of climate change, global warming, biodiversity conservation and food security”, he explained.

He said more and more sectors of the society are getting involved in the program, a clear manifestation of increasing environmental consciousness of the Filipino.

Paje said this high positive satisfaction rating of the President on environmental issues may be attributed to the growing environmental consciousness of the Filipino.

NGP is set to plant 1.5 billion trees covering 1.5 million hectares of degraded forestland and urban landscape for the next five years.