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MANILA, Philippines — Environmentalists have scored a victory after the Court of Appeals (CA) had ordered the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to issue appropriate guidelines for identifying “non-attainment areas” (NAAs), or regions where pollution levels in bodies of water have surpassed safe limits due to natural or man-made causes.
In its 60-page decision issued on Aug. 8, the appellate court said the DENR and its Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) had failed to fulfill their responsibilities under the Clean Water Act of 2004 since the law’s enactment two decades ago.
“Twenty years have been too long for respondents to renege on their legal duty,” the CA’s Sixteenth Division said in the decision penned by Associate Justice Rafael Antonio Santos.
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The court urged the respondents to resolve complaints filed by the petitioners before their offices and determine whether the bodies of water or portions identified should be designated as NAAs for phosphate and ammonia, chromium, lead, zinc, and oil and grease pollutants.
Verde Island Passage
The case stemmed from a petition filed by a coalition of environmental groups in December 2023 asking the CA to compel the DENR to designate the Verde Island Passage (VIP) as NAA to stop further pollution in the world’s “center of marine shore fish biodiversity.”
Designating an area as nonattainment would impose restrictions on polluting activities.
Among the petitioners are the Protect Verde Island Passage; Center for Energy, Ecology and Development (CEED); Bukluran ng Mangingisda ng Batangas; and several fisherfolk organizations in Batangas and Mindoro provinces.
Following the February 2023 oil spill off the coast of Oriental Mindoro, CEED repeatedly wrote the DENR, asking for guidelines for the declaration of NAA, but to no avail.
In July of that year, water quality tests in marine protected areas of Pola and Pinamalayan in Oriental Mindoro—still part of VIP—showed that five of six areas exceeded 2016 water quality standards for oil and grease.
A follow-up test in September showed that all six areas failed to meet the standards. This prompted the petitioners to file their case before the CA on Dec. 19, 2023.
Respondents’ comment
In its comment, the respondents denied that they neglected their obligations under the Clean Water Act, arguing that the DENR designated certain areas as Water Quality Management Areas (WQMAs) and that, to date, there are four officially designated WQMAs in the Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan) region.
They also claimed that the DENR, through its regional offices, regularly monitored water quality in these areas and kept an eye on the industries there.
Furthermore, the department has been preparing policies aligned with the designation of NAAs, the respondent said.
The CA noted, however, that in the EMB’s letter to CEED in November 2022, the draft guidelines for the designation of attainment and non-attainment areas were still awaiting approval by the DENR Central Office or the DENR chief.
CEED and Protect VIP hailed the decision. CEED executive director Gerry Arances said, “we are hopeful that this decision will now finally force the DENR to uphold its mandate of protecting our seas and communities that rely on them.”