House OKs on 2nd reading bill banning single-use plastics
BACOLOD CITY – The House of Representatives has approved on second reading a bill banning single-use plastics, said Rep. Francisco “Kiko” Benitez of Negros Occidental’s 3rd district.
House Bill 9147 regulates the production, importation, sale, and use of single-use plastics and shifts the responsibility on producers to recover plastic waste to prevent leakage to bodies of water and harm to the environment.
Benitez chaired the technical working group (TWG) that consolidated 42 bills and resolutions into House Bill 9147.
Benitez thanked House Speaker Lord Alan Velasco, Environment Committee Chairperson Glona Labadlabad, and the 106 co-authors of House Bill 9147 for their support throughout the painstaking process of drafting and approving the bill.
“It’s been two decades since the first bills were filed to expressly ban specific single-use plastics. The 18th Congress is committed to finish the job,” he said.