Senator Lorna Regina “Loren” B. Legarda again called on local
government units in the country to implement Republic Act 9003—the Ecological
Solid Waste Management Law—which was reenacted 13 years ago.
Ms.
Legarda, principal author and sponsor of the said law, decried the fact that
many LGUs have yet to comply with solid waste law, citing difficulties in
implementation.
“It
is always a challenge to implement a new law, but if we only take that first
crucial step of actually trying to do it, maybe we could have already reached
100 percent full compliance rate 13 years after the law was enacted,” she said.
“The
key here is to teach every citizen to properly manage their waste materials at
home. That goes the same for every school, private and public offices,
industrial and commercial establishments. That is why we need to tap our
barangay leaders because they should be responsible for the segregation of
biodegradable, compostable and reusable waste, while the municipal or city
government will collect the non-recyclable materials and special waste,”
Legarda explained.
Under
RA 9003, all LGUs should have a solid waste management plan, which should be
submitted to and approved by the National Solid Waste Management Commission.
The
law states that there should be mandatory segregation of waste at source and a
“no segregation, no collection” policy. All barangays should have a materials
recovery facility (MRF), where waste materials are sorted for composting and
recycling and the residual waste will be brought to sanitary landfills.
Furthermore,
all open and controlled dumpsites should now be closed and instead, sanitary
landfills should have been established.
Ms.
Legarda noted that the latest available data on ESWM compliance, the 2012
statistics from the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), showed that
only 414 of the 1,610 LGUs nationwide have complied with the national plan.
However, having a plan does not ensure that the law is fully and properly
implemented.
The
senator cited a government program, the “Solid Waste Management Law Voluntary
Compliance Assessment and Promotion Program”, spearheaded by the Office of the
Ombudsman, which aims to recognize LGUs that have complied with the ESWM Law
and to urge voluntary compliance of other LGUs.
Ms.
Legarda is hopeful the program will succeed in encouraging LGUs to finally
implement their respective solid waste management program and to follow the law
to ensure safe, clean and disaster-resilient communities.
“There
are very few LGUs who have effectively and efficiently complied with the ESWM law.
The fact that there are compliant LGUs only means that it is doable and there
is no reason why other LGUs could not follow suit. I hope our leaders will have
the political will to implement the law at full speed, especially now that we
are facing threats of extreme weather events that can trigger environmental
disasters such as the Payatas tragedy in Manila and the Irisan trash slide in
Baguio,” Ms. Legarda pointed out.
In
Ilocos Norte, only Laoag City has a sanitary landfill with San Nicolas and Batac
City in the process of either beginning construction or finalizing plans of
building their own. Solid waste management programs, however are already in
place in most of the LGUs in the province. (MTE)
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