Marcos signs environmental accounting framework law

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed a measure that would develop an information system and accounting framework for the country’s natural resources and their impact on the economy.

RA 11995 or the Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System (PENCAS) Law was signed on May 22 and published in the Official Gazette of the Philippines on Sunday.

The law’s accounting framework includes the list of officially designated statistics on the depletion, degradation, and restoration of natural capital; environmental protection expenditures; pollution and quality of land, air, and water; and environmental damage.

The measure aims to “provide tools and measures that contribute to the protection, conservation, and restoration of the country’s ecosystems.”

The law also mandates the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Board to oversee the implementation and form an inter-agency working group to create the measure’s rules and regulations within a year of its effectivity.

Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture (DA) was tasked to assist the PSA in creating and supplying the National Capital Accounting information related to agricultural areas.

The DA would also work with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Education, the Professional Regulation Commission, and the Department of Finance. — DVM, GMA Integrated News