Law modernizing polluting steel plants in Pampanga town gets 1st nod of prov’l board

ALARM IN THE AIR Residents of San Simon town in Pampanga provided this photo taken on Jan. 27 showing a local steel manufacturing plant emitting smoke that allegedly causes respiratory problems among nearby villagers and the quick corrosion of their roofs. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — The first Philippine municipal ordinance legislating the modernization of smelting metal scraps, including a ban on induction furnaces (IF) for the manufacture of steel bars, passed the Pampanga Provincial Board’s committee on environment and disaster resilience on Thursday, March 2.

The committee approved Ordinance No. 003-2023 of the municipal government of San Simon at the motion of Board Member Benjamin Jocson and seconded by Board Member Nelson Calara during the first hearing.

Local laws undergo mandatory review by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial legislative board).

Lawyer Ananias Canlas Jr., the committee’s chair, found no legal issues since the Department of Environment and Natural Resources representatives confirmed there was “no existing policy against IF and that nothing prohibits local governments from banning IF.”

The Board of Investments in 2019 rejected the application of Philippine Sanjia Steel Corp. to put up an P800-million steel plant due to “DENR’s policy against IF with defective or substandard air pollution control technology,” George Cariño, San Simon’s council secretary, told the committee.

At the hearing, San Simon Mayor Romanoel Santos said the ordinance, approved on Feb. 13 and signed by Mayor Abundio Punsalan Jr. on Feb.16, sought to minimize pollution to protect the health and environment of the people.

“These smelting plants have not stopped emitting smoke,” Santos told the committee, adding that a health census in Barangays San Pablo Propio, Libutad, Dela Paz, San Isidro, and Sta. Monica showed an “unusually high number” of adult residents with asthma and children with primary complex, a form of tuberculosis.

San Simon recorded 72 of the total 102 asthma cases assisted by the provincial government’s Alagang Nanay Preventive Health program as of March 1, a tally showed.

Residents have also complained that tiny particles settling on their roofs erode them quickly.

Canlas said several farmers in adjacent villages reported a decline in rice production per hectare from 150 cavans to less than 100 cavans and called for water quality tests on irrigation sources.

The ordinance’s sponsor, Liga ng mga Barangay chair and Councilor Randie Flores said the local law took cues from the fact that China had banned IF since 2017 because of its harmful effects on the environment.

Melters Steel Corp., Real Steel Corp., and Wan Chiong Steel Corp. reported using IF in smelting scrap metals. The two others — Altima Empire Steel Corp. and SKK Steel Corp. — use electric arc furnaces, according to the minutes of a Jan. 18 municipal hearing.

As of March 2, these companies had not notified them of closure, partial operations, or filing of a legal case stopping enactment of the “Strengthening the Modernization of Smelting Metal Scrap Ordinance” before the local or provincial board, Santos said.

These were due to be invited in the second hearing.

He earlier said these firms had not updated their environmental clearance certificates or operated with continuous emission monitoring systems.

Flores told board members that some companies had operated beyond the capacity of their pollution control devices.

The five companies produce an average of 3,000 tons of steel bars daily, an INQUIRER source in the industry estimated.

Canlas required the DENR and its Environmental Management Bureau to furnish the provincial board with copies of the results of soil, water, air, and chemical tests done around the smelting plants. INQ

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