Months ago, members of the Philippine Earth Justice Center, Inc. (PEJC) met some residents of barrio Lawaan, Dumanjug, Cebu. They were frustrated with the manner their family and barangay residents were given the run-around by the local officials and the DENR. For six years, they suffered the horrible stench, dirt and diseases that resulted from the indiscriminate discharge of wastes from the piggery operating in their barangay that has encroached upon their property. Obviously, no waste water treatment facility was installed. The discharge made vast tracts of land look like lakes and waterways.
The residents called the attention of the corporation and local officials and received no action, except that officials passed the buck to the DENR. Many children and residents have gotten sick with dengue and respiratory ailments. The areas overrun by these agricultural wastes have become one big open dumpsite, spawning flies and mosquitoes that abound everywhere.
We cannot understand how this appalling condition and reckless disregard of the health of the people had been allowed by the local authorities and DENR for years.
The business operates with impunity towards our laws and with reckless disregard of the rights of the people, including their right to a healthful and balanced ecology. It is a fact that the corporation running the farm has no business and sanitation permits and no environmental clearance certificate. Yet, the barangay and the municipal officials pretend as if they are powerless and without any responsibility to stop the operation.
What about the all-encompassing police power, under section 16 and protection of health, maintenance of sanitation and healthful and balanced ecology under section 17 of the Local Government Code, and the special laws such as RA 9003, guys?
Would the public authorities wait until a pandemic blew in their faces? We call on the Department of Health to conduct a medical surveillance of the area and propose recommendations to the agencies concerned. The governor, who supervises the municipality of Dumanjug, should initiate an immediate investigation on this matter and hold accountable the grossly negligent public officials and make sure that the piggery is closed—for good.
We also trust that the people who sent the Notice to Sue to the officials concerned will not in any way be threatened or harmed. They have suffered for too long and deserve compassion and respect for their rights to a good quality of life and a healthy environment withheld them the past six years.
To our officials: Why is it so difficult for you to make the law work?
To our citizens: Let us be fully engaged in the decision-making process that affects us all. Our experience and wisdom (hopefully) gained from years of advocacy work and engagement with stakeholders have convinced us that we, the people, hold the sustainable future, in our hands.
If we act as if we things will not change, they will never change. If we just allow a culture of entitlement to seep through the minds of the leaders, then we deserve them and their arrogant ways. With that goes the absolute lack of prioritization of the services that should have been mainstreamed.
In the era of disasters, displacement and diseases exacerbated by climate change and rapid environmental degradation, can we afford to lie low, fence sit and let environmental injustice inflicted not just on us but on your children and grandchildren continue?
The answer is up to each of us.
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We are happy to note that since we filed administrative cases against officials in the DENR, they are responsive now to requests for copies of public documents and certain services. We received the report of the DENR EMB OIC Alan Arranguez that there was good quality of air pervading the area when the historical Road Revolution Program was launched on June 12.
EMB has always been consistent in pointing out that the quality of air in Cebu is rated FAIR. Yet, studies from World Bank and ADB reveal that Metro Cebu is considered one of the most polluted cosmopolitan areas in the country, with a high incidence of the attendant respiratory ailments and heart diseases.
People certainly deserve to know the air quality in Cebu and in the country. That is possible only if air quality monitoring (AQM) stations are set up and more devices are purchased by the local government units to show the pollution level of each city and municipality, especially those which are highly urbanized. Cebu City Councilor Alvin Dizon understands this need and vowed to push for the allocation of such an acquisition in the 2012 Budget. I understand DOST is “fine-tuning an ambient air pollution sensor designed to help bring down the cost of setting up an AQM station.” (https://www.pcierd.dost.gov.ph/index.php/submitted-articles/124-air-pollution-sensor). It is high time that LGUs tie up with DOST on this matter.
In addition, more public parks, bike lanes and foot paths should be constructed. This is a basic service under the Local Government Code that highly urbanized cities coping with urban migration can and must do.
The right to breathe fresh air is a basic human right and so is the right to health. Yet these rights are being taken for granted, especially by the policy-making body on air quality management in Metro Cebu, the Metro Cebu Air Shed Board. It is constituted pursuant to the Philippine Clean Air Act.
Since its launch in 2009, it has not been heard from. Local chief executives make up the bulk of the membership of this body.