MANILA, Philippines?After signing controversial Ordinance 8187, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim has signed an executive order prohibiting the registration and renewal of permits of businesses deemed violating environmental laws and ordinances.
Ordinance 8187 allows the Big 3 oil companies? depot in Pandacan and other major industries in the city to continue operating where they are.
?No new business which will pollute the environment, pose danger to lives and properties such as, but not limited to, those classified as extremely pollutive and/or extremely hazardous or pollutive and/or hazardous under Ordinance 8187, shall be registered or allowed to do business in the city,? according to Lim?s Executive Order 19 dated June 4, 2009.
Ordinance 8187, which Lim approved on May 28, in effect amended Ordinance 8027 which reclassified parts of Sta. Ana and Pandacan from industrial to commercial zones, effectively banning the operations of the oil depot.
Some sectors, including the Church led by Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, have been opposing the new ordinance, saying the industries that it allows to stay in the city pose danger to the lives of the residents and the environment.
?The city will undertake the evaluation and inspection of all industries that had been existing and registered prior to May 28, 2009, which had been granted and issued license to do business in Manila,? the EO said.
?With regard to new industries to be registered hereafter, they shall be required to strictly comply with all laws and rules to a clean and safe environment, such as the Clean Air Act, anti-pollution laws, and other regulations related thereto,? it added.
However, Councilor Ma. Lourdes ?Bonjay? Isip-Garcia, an advocate of the oil depot?s relocation, said the EO is ?totally confusing and deceptive.?
?It?s a direct contradiction of Ordinance 8187, which he himself just signed recently,? she said. ?The new EO says the city is reiterating its continuing policy not to allow the registration, existence, and operation of businesses that are hazardous and pollutive to the environment. But Ordinance 8187 allows the introduction of hazardous and pollutive industries.?
