|
| The
Honorable ANGELO T. REYES |
| Secretary |
| Department
of Environment and Natural Resources |
|
A versatile, top-caliber leader, many
say an overachiever who has helped shape history, now heads the Department of Environment
and Natural Resources.
Secretary Angelo T. Reyes brings to the office formidable credentials as the 15th
Secretary of the DENR since 1974.
During the formal turnover of the Department to him by Secretary Michael T. Defensor on
February 15, 2006, Secretary Reyes declared: “This Department is one of the most
critical departments. On us lies the fate of our country’s life support system: our
air, our water, our land, our forest, our minerals, our biological resources. How we
perform affects to a large extent how other sectors will achieve their own
objectives.”
Given his firm sense of command, responsibility, discipline, duty, and mission, the DENR
is certain to live up to its mandate impressively. A leader by example, Secretary Reyes
enunciated the following core beliefs that will guide the DENR during his watch:
• First, the DENR’s mandate is clear: We are responsible for the environment,
and we are responsible for our country’s natural resources. We are responsible to
ensure the health of the environment that we all commonly share today, the environment
that we hold as temporary trustees, the environment that we shall bequeath to the
generations to come. Our job is to ensure that the environment will not only be protected
but enhanced, to achieve the overarching goal of improving the quality of life of every
Filipino, particularly Filipinos who have less in life.
• I believe that we can strengthen and improve our enforcement activities. We have
sufficient laws, and the DENR already possesses extensive powers. I believe we should
mobilize our resources and the resources of other law enforcement agencies to effectively
put a stop to the violation and degradation of our environment. We must create a situation
wherein the probability of detection is high, the probability of apprehension is even
higher, and the probability of prosecution is assured. Further, our laws should be
enforced across the social spectrum. Where the law is not enforced, it does not exist.
When the law is not enforced for some, it would be difficult to enforce for others.
• I believe that the implementation of our environmental programs is primarily a
local concern. We need to mobilize extensively the local governments not only as our
implementers but as the one most intimately involved. We must continue to pursue
devolution in the environment sector. At the same time, we must decentralize more
responsibilities to our field offices and strengthen the capabilities of communities and
non-governmental organizations.
• We must have comprehensive, integrated, collaborative and symbiotic working
relations among all concerned entities. We must find a workable formula to ensure the
consistency of national and local policies, and the continuity of local decisions. We must
nurture a sense of community between the national and local governments, and among the
public and private sectors together with the citizenry.
• Inefficiency and corruption generally result in obsolete processes. We must put
more science into our decision-making. Lack of scientific basis often allows the intrusion
of partisan politics into our decisions. I believe that we need to reorient from being
rule-driven to being mission-driven.
• A short verse which captures what we Filipinos should all do goes: “Do more
than just belong, participate; Do more than just care, help; Do more than just believe,
practice; Do more than just dream, work.”
Before his appointment to the DENR, Secretary Reyes held various high positions in the
Government. He was the Chief-of-Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines until January
2001, when he led the AFP’s withdrawal of support from the impeached President Joseph
Estrada in response to the Filipino people’s clamor for good governance.
Subsequently, he became the first person appointed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to
her Cabinet. Among the key positions entrusted to him were those of Secretary of National
Defense, chairman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, chief of the National
Anti-Kidnapping Task Force, chief of the National Anti-Smuggling Task Force, Secretary of
the Interior and Local Government, and chairman of the National Police Commission.
Secretary Reyes, born in Manila to public school teachers Pablo P. Reyes and Purificacion
Tomas Reyes on March 17, 1945, hails from Binangonan, Rizal. He is married to the former
Teresita Pernia, with whom he has five sons.
He went to the Cubao High School (now Ramon Magsaysay [Cubao] High School in Quezon City
for his secondary education. For his baccalaureate degree, he attended the Philippine
Military Academy, graduating in the top ten (7th) of Class 1966. He also topped the
command and staff course at the AFP Command and General Staff College as well as the trust
corporations management course at the Ateneo Business School.
Secretary Reyes holds two masters degrees: in business management, from the Asian
Institute of Management, and in public administration, from the Kennedy School of
Government at Harvard University. His other studies overseas include the trust
corporations course at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois and the logistics
management course at the Naval Post-Graduate School in Monterey, California. |
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