LEGASPI CITY – Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) Regional Director (RD) Reynulfo A. Juan has formally assumed new office as the new Regional Executive Director (RED) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Bicol.

Juan was earlier designated by Secretary Angelo T. Reyes as OIC-RED and Regional Director MGB, in concurrent capacity, vice RED Oscar M. Hamada who was reassigned to the Technical Resource Pool at the DENR central office in Quezon City.

In his message at the turn-over ceremony last Monday, Hamada thanked DENR workers in Bicol for their support and cooperation during his almost eight years stint. He also urged them to extend to Juan the same dedication and commitment to their work.

“These are hard times and so, we have to roll up our sleeves and work,” Hamada said. But we have to ‘do more than just dream, work’, he added echoing a motto of Secretary Reyes.

For his part, incoming RED Juan cited the framework by which he would work as top man of the DENR in the region.

He said he viewed public service as: (1) within the dimension of responsiveness, (2) the kind that builds trust and confidence from clientele, (3) a vehicle to strive for excellence, and (4) a function of integrity.

Juan explained “responsiveness” as not just effectively reacting to situation. What is important is that “we are able to see through potential problems, and act to mitigate its probable effect, if not prevent its occurrence.”

Such proaction can be done if there is the kind of commitment that is internalized within us as public servants. Without such commitment, he said, there can never be responsive public service.

On one hand, building trust and confidence from clientele can only be done if we possess the sincerity in discharging our duties. Without this sincerity, we can never give the satisfactory service that the public wants, he stressed.

Juan further said the outcome of striving for excellence and of endeavoring to improve “will permeate the well-being of our clientele”. “Without this passion for improvement and excellence,” he added, “there can never be a dynamic public service.”

The new DENR Bicol chief also emphasized the function of integrity. “Without integrity, we cannot erase the stigma that we in the bureaucracy are out to gain more for our personal interests. It simply doing things that is right, even without somebody looking.”

“But can we escape the eyes of our public when we perform our duties?’ he asked, adding that without this kind of integrity, there can never be a rightful public service.”

Juan said he would like to operationalize this framework within the mandate the DENR has been tasked to implement-protection, conservation and wise utilization of natural resources, within the context of social equity, economic development and environmental protection.

“I cannot do this formidable task alone. But with you performing our different tasks we will be able to achieve what is expected of us by the superiors and most especially by our clientele”, Juan told DENR Region 5 Officials and employees.”

He closed his message by quoting Sir Wilfred Grenfell. “The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this earth…that the purpose of the world is not to have and to hold but to give and to serve.”

Juan is the first Bicolano to become RED of DENR Bicol. He comes from Vinzons, Camarines Norte. (DENR-ASA)

February 7, 2007