{"id":271973,"date":"2020-10-15T22:19:07","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T02:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=271973"},"modified":"2020-10-15T22:19:07","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T02:19:07","slug":"antiporda-apologizes-to-up-over-bayaran-remark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/10\/15\/antiporda-apologizes-to-up-over-bayaran-remark\/","title":{"rendered":"Antiporda apologizes to UP over ‘bayaran’ remark"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
DENR Undersecretary Benny Antiporda (PNA Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Undersecretary Benny Antiporda has apologized to the University of the Philippines-Marine Science Institute (UP-MSI) over his remark where he branded them “bayaran<\/em>\u00a0(paid hack).”<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, let me start this statement with an apology to UP as a whole. I\u2019m emotionally carried away yesterday and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair for the UP people who are really working hard for our countrymen and\u00a0marami pa rin naman nagtatrabaho jan na pro bono<\/em>\u00a0(there are still many people there who are working pro bono),\u201d Antiporda said during an interview over CNN Philippines on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Antiporda said he was just affected by the issue with UP-MSI.<\/p>\n

He said the DENR and the UP-MSI have been partners for a long time and that the agency has been paying the institute for their services like consultation, research, and capacity building.<\/p>\n

Laura David, director of UP-MSI, accepted the apology.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s always been a good cooperative collaboration between the UP MSI and DENR. This was just a miscommunication and now that everything has been cleared there’s no problem to work with them again,\u201d David said.<\/p>\n

Antiporda said he feels that it would have been more appropriate if the UP-MSI called the DENR\u2019s attention regarding their observations and suggestions on the Manila Bay rehabilitation project instead of going straight to the media.<\/p>\n

David, meanwhile, said they did not go straight to the press.<\/p>\n

She said they published their observations on their own website where the media picked it up.<\/p>\n

Antiporda said UP-MSI did not publish anything on their website during the time that they entered into a contract with the DENR and agreed to receive some PHP210-million payment for their services.<\/p>\n

He said a good partner should be open to one another and directly communicate with each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is to send them a message telling them\u00a0na<\/em>\u00a0partners\u00a0po tayo with MSI siguro naman nung kasalukuyang nagbabayad kami ng malaking halaga eh nagagawa nyo kaming tawagan at nagagawa nyong sulatan kami. Bakit ngayon eh diretso sa media<\/em>\u00a0(We are partners with MSI and during the time that we are paying them a huge amount of money, they were able to call us or write us a letter, but why is it that they go directly to the media now?),\u201d said Antiporda.<\/p>\n

With regards to the suggestion of the UP-MSI on planting mangroves around the Manila Bay area, David said they were not referring to the Manila Bay beach but rather in areas around it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMangroves act as a filter.\u00a0Meron sa kadulu-duluhan ng Pasig River there is a mangrove stand<\/em>\u00a0(there is a mangrove stand at the far end part of the Pasig River) but most mangroves are either in Cavite and Bulacan,\u201d David said.<\/p>\n

Antiporda said the UP-MSI seem to have a lot of catching up to do with the developments accomplished by the DENR.<\/p>\n

He said the agency built a sewage treatment plant (STP) in the bay walk area and is poised to build other STPs to help improve the water quality in the bay.<\/p>\n

As regards to the mangroves, he said DENR-NCR has already built a mangrove area in Baseco area in Manila.<\/p>\n

Antiporda also assured the UP-MSI that the DENR is doing\u00a0its job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Undersecretary Benny Antiporda has apologized to the University of the Philippines-Marine Science …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":271983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-marita-moaje","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271984,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271973\/revisions\/271984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}