Environmental group scores Ombudsman flip-flop

The Office of the Ombudsman. INQUIRER FILE / NINO JESUS ORBETA

Environment groups on Sunday scored the office of the Ombudsman for retracting its earlier order for the suspension of 72 local officials for alleged violation of the solid waste management law.

In a statement, Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment said Ombudsman Samuel Martires could have meted a more “constructive” sanction, rather than absolve outright erring local officials on the basis of lack of funds to implement Republic Act 9003.

“The Ombudsman should have complemented [his decision] with binding orders for erring (local government units) to study and implement what solid waste management program they can implement with what resources they have,” said Leon Dulce, Kalikasan national coordinator.

Martires last month recalled the suspension orders earlier slapped against 72 officials from 11 cities and towns in the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya, Bataan, Bulacan, Cavite, Palawan, Albay, and Leyte for their alleged failure to close open dumpsites in their localities, as mandated by the law.

The new Ombudsman reversed the suspension orders issued by his predecessor, former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, who retired in July.

According to Kalikasan, the reasons Martires cited in reversing the suspensions only highlighted the need for the national government to provide funding for local governments to help them solve their problems on solid waste management.

As solid waste management has become a profit-driven enterprise, poorer localities have been manage their garbage disposal on their own, Dulce said.

“The lack of state funding promotes the privatization of this social service, and corporate service providers usually do not find fifth and sixth class municipalities as profitable,”

But according to Kalikasan, even low-cost community-based waste management programs can make significant contributions to the country’s problem on waste reduction.

“These [low cost programs] will not resolve the cumulative crisis of solid waste in this anthropocene age but they are still a good step forward closer to compliance,” he said.

Scientists usually refer to “anthropocene” as the geologic period when human activity is confirmed to have altered the earth’s ecosystem, causing such effects as climate change.

Sought for comment, solid waste management director Eliseo Ildefonso said the Environmental Management Bureau, which filed the complaint against the 72 local officials, will file an appeal on Martires’ recall orders. /cbb