Waste management law suffering from lack of enforcement

CEBU, Philippines – Lack of enforcement allows barangay officials to get away with the penalties for violating the Solid Waste Management Act, according to Environmental Management Bureau Solid Waste Management Division-7.

The violation is due to the absence of Materials Recovery Facility that each barangay is mandated to have.

Section 32 of Republic Act 9003 states that “there shall be established an MRF (MRF) in every barangay or cluster of barangays. The facility shall be established in a barangay-owned or leased land or any suitable open space.”

“For this purpose, the barangay shall allocate a certain parcel of land for the MRF. The MRF shall receive mixed waste for final sorting, segregation, composting, and recycling. The resulting residual wastes shall be transferred to a long term storage or disposal facility or sanitary landfill.”

SWM-7 coordinator Amancio Dongcoy confirmed that out of the 1,195 barangays in Cebu, only 20 have operational MRFs, a compliance rate of only 1.6 percent.

In the Region 7, 30 of 3,030 barangays have operational MRFs, a compliance rate of 0.9 percent.

Since the establishment of MRF was devolved to the barangays under the law, the responsibilities therefore lie in the power of barangay captains, Dongcoy said.

The EMB will monitor, assess, and make reports and recommendations from its inspection of each locality. The reports will then be submitted to the National Solid Waste Management Commission, which has the power to enforce sanctions.

Based on the reports submitted to it, the commission will then decide whether to endorse the heads of barangays and municipalities to the Department of Interior and Local Government for suspension.

But prior to the action of the commission, mayors of municipalities whose barangays are not complying with this provision of the act may enforce sanctions on the barangay leaders.

Dongcoy said no one has ever penalized for these violations. He said that local officials are not heeding the warning of authorities because the enforcement is not so strict.

Even the mandate of the law for municipalities to have their own sanitary landfills was not seriously taken by mayors in Region 7.

Proof of this is the report that only five of 132 LGUs have responded to the warning of the DENR.

Most LGUs are still dumping their wastes in open dumpsites and, worse, burning them, which is a violation of the Clean Air Act, Dongcoy said.

The SWM-7 has already sent recommendations to LGUs on how to properly manage their waste and what they should do while in the absence of a sanitary landfill.

In June, another warning from DENR will be released and LGUs that still fail to comply with the law after the third warning will receive sanctions. – Jessica Ann R. Pareja/LPM (THE FREEMAN)