Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Aklan SP Enacts Rivers Development

By: Odon B. Bandiola

The provincial legislative body of Aklan (Sangguniang Panlalawigan) enacted on its August 24, 2005 31st Regular Session the Aklan Rivers Development Council provincial ordinance which shall be tasked with the rehabilitation, preservation and development of the rivers system of Aklan.
Earlier, Aklan Governor Carlito S. Marquez in close consultation with Vice Governor and SP presiding officer Ronquillo C. Tolentino, through an urgent request, decided to forward to the provincial legislative body the draft ordinance establishing the Aklan Rivers Development Council, defining its powers and functions, appropriating funds therefore and for other purposes.
During the 1999 11th Congress of the Philippines, former Aklan congressman Allen Salas Quimpo filed a bill similar to the provincial ordinance. While the bill passed the House of Representatives, the bill got stalled in the Senate on third reading when the 11th Congress adjourned consigning the bill to the congressional archives.
Marquez and Tolentino, after a careful study, considered its adoption as a provincial ordinance. The explanatory note to the Quimpo congressional bill was reiterated by Governor Marquez and Vice Governor Tolentino when Quimpo emphasized that “for Aklanons, the Aklan Rivers System are not just major tributary but lifeblood of the province’s agriculture and economic growth and the source of thousands of hectares of farmlands and water for everyday use and its being used by residents upriver to the market centers. Marquez also stressed that his provincial administration owes the youth and children of Aklan the protection and development of the province’s rivers system.
Aklan Congressman Florencio T. Miraflores had categorically manifested full support to the Aklan rivers system ordinance. During his provincial administration as Aklan Governor, he issued Executive Order No. 2000-06 on the creation of Aklan river integrated area development.
The Aklan Rivers Development Council shall be composed of the Governor as chair, the Vice Governor as vice chair with the membership composed of the 17 municipal mayors of the municipalities of Aklan, the heads of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Aklan (PENRO and CENRO), the Provincial Director of Aklan Philippine National Police, the District Engineer of the Department of Public works and Highways, the Provincial Head of the National Irrigation Administration and three non – government organizations representatives with ecology as their principal purpose, and the SP chairman on environment, agriculture and cooperatives.
The Aklan Rivers System includes the rivers that run from the upland areas of Libacao and Madalag down to Balete, Altavas, Malinao, Tangalan, Ibajay, Nabas, Buruanga, Malay and Kalibo until the Sibuyan Sea where all tributaries drain.
The biggest and the longest in the system is the Aklan river and its tributaries, the Dumalaylay and Timbaban, followed by the Ibajay river in the west.
With the creation of the ARSC, is also the setting up of the Aklan Rivers Conservation Secretariat which shall be headed by the Executive Director.
The council shall be tasked, among others, to adopt rules, policies, guidelines, recommendations to the concerned agencies on the conservation of the rivers system; formulate a comprehensive, short, medium and long – term plans for the development and rehabilitation of the rivers system; conduct survey, incentives, state and status of the system, review all existing ordinances, policies, rules and regulations issued by the local government units concerned related to the development of the Aklan rivers, as the highest consultative body; and direct the implementation of the projects that maybe approved pursuant to the development plan of the Aklan rivers. /MP http://madyaas_pen@yahoo.com

1 comment:

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