Merging DA + DENR

The Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) are among the agencies that need merger and consolidation. Consider the roller-coaster ride in policy planning, program implementation and monitoring, between the two departments from the mountains to the seas -- assuming that there is indeed rationale for government intervention and regulation in all of those resources and ecosystem:

(a) From the mountains, forest protection and rehabilitation, if there are still forest to protect, DENR;
(b) upland and midland agriculture, grazing and animal husbandry activities, DA;
(c) protecting lakes and rivers from water pollution, DENR;
(d) tapping these lakes and rivers for irrigation and aquaculture, DA; also Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) in the case of Laguna Lake;
(e) lowland and urban forestry, DENR;
(f) lowland agriculture and animal husbandry, DA;
(g) to the shorelines, mangrove forest and coastal resources protection, DENR;
(h) municipal and commercial fishery, aquaculture, DA (through the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources or BFAR)
(i) protection of coral reefs, both DA and DENR.

Such roller-coaster and interlapping functions in policy planning and program implementation between these 2 line departments can create both confusion and indifference, of pointing someone else to blame if something goes wrong. Like in cases of huge landslides that cover entire villages with mud and rocks. The DENR is often blamed by many people for not stopping illegal logging or allowing conversion of hilly forest land to agricultural small-scale plantation. The DENR sometimes blame the DA and/or the local government units (LGUs) for not informing the farmers of appropriate soil erosion control techniques like building terraces, practicing sloping agriculture technologies, and so on.

The resulting agency can be called Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR). The function of pollution mitigation and control can be handled by an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an office attached to the OP.

Some people propose to attach the Bureau of Mines and Geosciences (BMG, currently under DENR) to the Department of Energy (DOE) because of similarity of function in planning extractive activities for oil, natural gas, geothermal, other drilling exploration.