MANILA,—The National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace (NASSA) will proactively pursue programs on sustainable agriculture and the environment for the year 2009. In an interview with CBCPNews, Sr. Rosanne Mallillin, SPC, NASSA Executive Secretary said they are waiting for the draft Memorandum of Agreement between her office and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources under Secretary Jose Atienza.

She said NASSA will have three-fold functions under the draft agreement which she believes will be signed and become operational within the next couple of weeks. “We will be part review committee for permits and applications for mining operations and we will also be part of the monitoring body for existing mining projects and look into the existing Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Mining Act of 1995 to immediately institute changes,” Mallilin disclosed.

She said they are in the process of identifying experts to compose the 5-man committee to seriously look into the Mining Act of 1995. “The five-man committee which will conduct an objective examination of the 1995 Mining Act will have a forester, a socio-anthropologist and three more independent but concerned Filipinos,” she added. Mallilin said there’s a strong possibility the committee will have Bontoc-Lagawe Bishop Emeritus Francisco Claver, S.J. as one of the five-man committee members considering his expertise in moral theology, anthropology, his expertise of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act and his being a member of the country’s Indigenous Peoples.

As far as sustainable agriculture is concerned, Mallilin said they will continue to do training programs in the regional and diocesan levels. “We sent a three-man team to Bangkok for the PAN-ASIA conference in Bangkok led by Cesar Gomez, the region’s coordinator for sustainable agriculture,” she said.

It is expected they will echo the information they received at the nine-day training due to end on Monday, January 19th. It was learned that NASSA is the lead agency for sustainable agriculture in Asia under Caritas Asia. (Melo M. Acuña)

http://cbcponline.net/cbcpmonitor/pdf/vol13-n2.pdf