Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Undersecretary Benny Antiporda refused to apologize to the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute experts after he called them “bayaran” (paid hacks) after the latter criticized the Manila Bay dolomite project.
Antiporda, in an interview with ABS-CBN’s TeleRadyo, insisted that DENR has paid the UP MSI millions for previous projects.
“I don’t think it’s fair for us na ganun ang gawin niyo samin being your client. Ang amin po…porke po ba hindi kami nagkonsulta sa inyo, at hindi kami nagbayad eh babatikusin niyo na lang kami?” he said.
DENR Usec Antiporda will not apologize to UP over ‘bayaran’ remark
“It’s very simple, we’re leaving the door open for communication, but I don’t think kailangan ako mag-apologize now but again di po kami ang nagkamali dito, sila po ang unang nagkamali, sila po ang unang bumatikos samin pero partners kami,” he said.
(It’s very simple, we’re leaving the door open for communication, but I don’t think I should be the one to apologize now, but again we did not commit any mistake. They committed the first mistake, they criticized us, but we’re partners.)
The DENR official said as partners, the UP scientists should have approached the environment department first instead of making their recommendations public.
“Since sila po ay partner namin dapat po sana ay rumekta sila sa amin, hindi po ‘yung dumaan sila sa media at i-discredit nila ang experts namin dito na graduate din naman karamihan ng UP.”
(Since they are our partner, they should have approached us directly, not the media, and they should not have discredited our experts, many of whom are also graduates from UP.)
The UPMSI earlier refuted the claims of the Antiporda that the DENR has been paying the research body half a billion pesos from 2016 until this year.
“Specifically, the correct amount is PhP364,073,909.40 total for the last decade, spanning ten collaborative projects between the UPMSI and the DENR as well as co-sponsorship support for a scientific symposium,” it said.