Groups demand LGU's compliance of environmental laws
Groups celebrating the World Environment Day today (June 5) had enough of government’s loose enforcement of existing environmental laws and has vowed to bring the matters in the designated environmental courts all over the country.
The local government of Iloilo City is expected to receive a notice from the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC-Iloilo) in order to look into the level of its compliance to the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 and the Clean Air Act of 1999 as the group joins in the celebration today.
The Visayas chapters of FDC, namely: Cebu, Negros, and Iloilo are part of the network of the Global Legal Action on Climate Change (GLACC) – a group comprised of lawyers, professionals, environmental activists, anti-debt campaigners, and responsible citizens converged through the effort of environmental lawyer Antonio Oposa.
“The FDC chapters in the Visayas will be joining GLACC in the filing of legal petitions and notices addressed to public officials – Mayors, Governors, heads of national government agencies, members of Congress – to inquire into the status of implementation and compliance of basic Environmental Laws – laws that have long languished in the sickbed of non-compliance,” said Ted Aldwin Ong, secretary-general of FDC-Iloilo.
Ong explained that “the LGU of Iloilo City under the leadership of Mayor Jerry Treñas is the subject of our noticesfor it appears that it has been in a procrastinating mode in as far as the proper implementation and enforcement of environmental laws is concerned.”
“For instance, garbage remains a major problem in Iloilo City in spite of the millions of pesos being spent by the city government for garbage management and collection. This is an indication that the nine-year oldRA 9003 has not been seriously enforced and observed,” cited by the group.
“On the other hand, the Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999 which emphasizes that LGU’s make ‘pollution prevention measures rather than control’ is likewise being brushed aside by the city government with its support on the proposed construction of a 164-MW coal-fired power plant in Brgy. Ingore, La Paz district,” the group added.
“These matters will be the subject of our legal notices which will be submitted today, June 5, to the Office of the Mayor,” said lawyer Romeo P. Gerochi,chairperson of FDC-Iloilo.
“We believe that inaction on these concerns today will have an irreversible impact to future generations, as such; citizens today must take action by petitioning for inter-generational damages (damage to future generations), emphasizedbyGerochi.
According to GLACC, “inter-generational damages is a legal action, which is hardly ever used, will allow the petitioner to gather the evidence existing and available in the present, in preparation of future legal action. The Court, upon motion of the petitioner, can subpoena any public official or private person and inquire as to the status of compliance of the Law.”