DENR’s role must be preventive, not reactive
President Marcos designated last week Undersecretary Juan Miguel Cuna as acting secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) following the appointment of its chief, Raphael Lotilla, as Philippine ambassador to the Holy See. This is less than a year since Lotilla was appointed in June 2025. Malacañang said the leadership change came after Lotilla requested a “lighter assignment,” although it is worth noting that his appointment was bypassed three times by the Commission on Appointments.
Finding a capable DENR secretary is very crucial considering the many environment issues facing the country. These include, among others, mounting pollution, severe climate vulnerability, rapid urbanization and development pressures, mining and reclamation projects with ecological consequences, worsening plastic pollution, rising sea levels, and biodiversity loss. Add to this the slow land titling, the continued illegal dumping of wastes into rivers and the seas, and the failure to assess the environmental impact of many infrastructure projects.
Plastic pollution
Air pollution, based on the scorecard of the World Health Organization, is significantly above the recommended maximum level due to the high vehicular emissions and the heavy use of fossil fuels such as coal and oil to generate electricity. The World Bank (WB), meanwhile, has described the country’s plastic pollution as “staggering” at nearly three million tons of waste due an inadequate waste management and recycling system and our high use of single-use plastics. The WB also noted that the Philippines generates 2.7 million tons of plastic waste a year, 20 percent of which ends in the seas.
Given these enormous issues facing the DENR, it is depressing to note that the agency has long suffered from a lack of budget. Early into her tenure as DENR secretary in 2023, Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga admitted the inadequate financial and human resources needed to mitigate the impact of climate change and ramp up environmental protection efforts across the country. “Unfortunately, the way we are set up is that the fiscal space is very tight. The DENR is in charge of 15 million hectares of classified forest lands. We are also in charge of so many thousands of hectares of coastal areas,” she pointed out.
Acute lack of manpower
“We cannot, at the level of budget at this point and the human resources available, do an adequate job of protecting all of our ecosystems,” she said.
That year, the DENR was given a budget of P23.29 billion, or lower than the P25.4 billion allocated in 2022. In 2026, this budget has increased to only P28.1 billion. This has resulted in an acute lack of manpower needed to address the country’s environmental concerns and, in turn, the DENR’s failure to implement its programs or enforce laws and regulations designed to protect the environment. What is happening is that the agency has become reactionary in the face of disasters.
Just last Feb. 24, the DENR issued a cease and desist order against the operator of the sanitary landfill in Rodriguez, Rizal, following a trash slide that killed one individual. Earlier on Jan. 8, it also issued the same order against the operator of a landfill in Cebu following a trash slide that killed at least 36 workers.
The agency likewise issued a notice of violation with a stoppage order on Nov. 10, 2025, against the developer of the Monterrazas de Cebu residential project after heavy flooding hit the Visayas. In October last year, the DENR was also faced with the problem of containing a massive wastewater spill in Bais City, Negros Oriental, caused by a private ethanol distillery plant.
All it promised was that the DENR will initiate administrative, civil, and criminal proceedings against the responsible parties. Also worth mentioning are the continued reclamation in Manila Bay despite the known environmental risks and the construction of an illegal resort in Bohol’s Chocolate Hills.
Longer learning curve
Thus, beyond finding a suitable leader for the DENR, the Marcos administration needs to provide the necessary funding for the agency to implement programs already known to the agency to mitigate the impact of climate change in the country. A bigger budget will allow the DENR to hire more environment warriors needed by the country to prevent, and not simply react, to disasters.
As for its leadership, the administration will do well by doing away with a political appointment. Someone from the inside is likely more familiar with the problems and the possible solutions to these than an individual who will need a longer learning curve. Before his appointment as acting DENR secretary, Cuna began his service in the DENR in 2008 as provincial environment and natural resources officer. He served as DENR director from 2010 to 2015, and was appointed assistant secretary in 2017 and later promoted to undersecretary in the same year.
It is hoped that he will have the courage to stand up to private interests motivated not by their desire to protect the environment, but solely by profit.
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