Gov’t unsure of compliance by towns, cities with waste laws

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Are 13 cities, 81 towns and 2,324 villages within the Manila Bay watershed in Central Luzon complying with environmental laws and capable of doing their part in the cleanup and rehabilitation of Manila Bay as ordered by the Supreme Court in 2008?

The answers are not immediately available, although an environmental compliance audit (ECA) has been conducted, an official of the Department of the Interior and Local Government  (DILG) said.

“We are subjecting the ECA results to a revalidation because we saw discrepancies,” Florida Dijan, regional DILG director, said of the delay.

She, however, did not give details on these discrepancies.

The audit, Dijan said, assessed the levels of compliance with the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 (Republic Act No. 9003). The process did not intend to find failures but to identify gaps in implementing laws and sustaining action, she said.

The audit used two sets of data capture forms for cities and towns, and villages. Both forms looked into five key legal provisions of RA 9003 such as segregation at source, segregated collection, functional material recovery facility, disposal facilities and ordinances pertaining to the environment.

The rehabilitation of Manila Bay should be completed by 2016, Dijan said.

In April, the DILG held a series of workshops to help local governments in Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Tarlac revisit the five-year action plan to clean, rehabilitate and preserve Manila Bay.

These were held to align the local plan with the operational plan of the Manila Bay Coastal Strategy. The high court has ordered Manila Bay waters be improved to “Class SB” (swim and bath).

The DILG  identified 6,961 illegal settlers along tributaries. Bataan has 1,275; Bulacan, 280; Nueva Ecija, 3,874; Pampanga and Angeles City, 1,273; and Tarlac, 250.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) removed 1,734 squatters in Nueva Ecija, 428 in Tarlac and 346 in Pampanga, the DILG said.

The DPWH demolished 230 illegal fish pens in Pampanga and 12 in Nueva Ecija.

A DILG survey showed that at least 30,000 households in the region do not have toilets. It said only 522 commercial firms and 33 factories have adequate human waste disposal facilities.

At least 1,599 establishments have wastewater treatment facilities, the survey said.

Local governments in the region, the DILG said, have devoted the first Saturday of the month to river and creek cleanup in their areas.  Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon