MANILA, Philippines ? A national environment protection group, Bangon Kalikasan, has welcomed with skepticism the passage of the Climate Change Act of 2009 and the subsequent creation of the Climate Change Commission on Friday.

Joey Papa, Bantay Kalikasan president, recalled that long before the signing of the law, other commissions and similar bodies such as the National Solid Waste Management Commission had been formed by the government but have been ?virtually inutile for nearly 10 years now and may have ended up being used instead for the commission of acts against the environment.?

In a statement, Papa cited environmental laws such as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Hazardous and Toxic Waste Management Act and those governing protected areas like watersheds and forests.

He said that if these laws were fully implemented they would have considerably helped mitigate the effects of climate change and prevented the untold damage caused by storms ?Ondoy? and ?Pepeng? and other extreme weather conditions.

He said the country could not depend on a law like the Climate Change Act of 2009 ?without its correct and immediate implementation? or it would just be relegated to the dustbins of libraries.

On Saturday, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo enacted Republic Act No. 9729 establishing the Climate Change Commission to draw up an action plan against global warming.

The signing came as Metro Manila and northern Luzon reeled from the destruction left by Ondoy and Pepeng that killed hundreds of people and destroyed billions of pesos worth of crops and infrastructure.

Weather officials blamed climate change for the extremely heavy rainfall dumped by the storms which inundated a vast swath of the metropolis and triggered heavy flooding and landslides in northern Luzon.

The commission is tasked to map out an action plan to mitigate the effects of climate change and to integrate climate change in the formulation of government policy.

To fully stop environmental destruction, Papa urged the President to immediately issue an executive order to all government agencies and local government units concerned to put an end to all the destructive practices against the environment.

He also asked the Ombudsman and the courts to immediately act on pending complaints against violators of the law and environmental criminals. Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon