Oposa: Benefit dance organizers can be liable for alarm and scandal, air pollution

ENVIRONMENTAL lawyer Antonio Oposa isn’t done going after noisy bailes or benefit dances in his hometown Sta. Fe in northern Cebu.

Yesterday, he lodged another complaint against several individuals for alarms and scandals.

“It’s good for everyone to understand that we should not tolerate this foolishness,” Oposa told Cebu Daily News.

Named respondents are residents Analie Tulid, Luzviminda Fariolen, and Merly Fariolen, Junjun Ofiasca, owner of the MDJ Disco Mobile, and sound system operators Nonoy Tumawan, Enzo Ofrel, and Boboy Ofiasca.

The respondents are accused of violation of article 155 (alarms and scandals) of the Revised Penal Code before the Municipal Circuit Trial Court of Bantayan-Sta. Fe-Madridejos.

A similar complaint for violation of Republic Act 8749 or the Clean Air Act was filed by Oposa before the Cebu Provincial Prosecutors’ Office last week.

“Despite all these entreaties, requests, and pleas, the organizers of bailes (benefit dance) and concerned public officials have turned a deaf ear. They altogether seem to have forgotten that they have a duty to protect and advance the general welfae of the people,” he said.

“To repeat, their duty is to the general welfare of the people. The greater number of people in this case are those who want to enjoy the peace and silence of the beautiful place that is the seaside town of Sta. Fe,” he added.

Oposa said the “general welfare” does not only mean the teenage punks who “go to bailes and use the same as the venue for their drug sessions, violence, unwarranted pregnancies, and other unwholesome activities.”

“Enough is enough,” he said.

Last January, Oposa said he requested the DENR to monitor the loud emissions from amplified sound systems in an event in Sta. Fe.

The findings of the DENR Monitoring Team, he said, showed that the noise levels in the area are above the prescribed legal limit for human habitation.

“The readings taken show that the noise levels are well above the legal standards set by the Clean Air Act and the Pollution Control Law. The findings of the monitoring team reveal that the unwanted sound emitted by these amplified sound falls in the area of 50 to 90 decibels or roughly the sound of a truck horn,” Oposa said.

He said the law holds liable “any person who while wandering about at night, or while engaged in any nocturnal amusements, shall disturb the public peace.”

A penalty of up to six months of imprisonment awaits those who will be found guilty of violating this provision of the Revised Penal Code.

Oposa, a resident of brgy. Ocoy, Sta. Fe, said bailes or benefit dances have been proliferating in their town since electricity was installed in the island in the 1990s.

He said the benefit dances were mostly attended by teenagers and minors who are exposed to “unsavory practice of nighlife and deafeningly loud noise of rock noise music.”

Although they have the right to amusement, Oposa said the use of amplifier systems, caused noise pollution in the area.

Oposa, a recipient of the 2009 Ramon Magsaysay Award enriched Philippine jurisprudence on environment and sustainable development when the class action he filed with children for the cancellation and stopping of issuance of Timber License Agreements won in the Supreme Court in 1993.

In Oposa vs Factoran, 44 children represented by their parents, in the name of their generation and generations unborn filed a class action against then secretary Fulgencio Factoran of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, praying that the DENR stop issuing TLA and cancel existing TLAs which gives license to widespread commercial logging throughout the country.

The landmark case penned by then Justice Hilario Davide Jr. recognized inter-generational responsibility and that even children and the unborn can invoke the Constitutional right to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature. / Ador Vincent Mayol, Reporter