THE Environmental Ombudsman recently ordered the closure of three open dumps in towns of Hindang and Bato in Leyte and Catarman in Northern Samar for violation of the National Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, or Republic Act (RA) 9003.
The closure of the three dumps stemmed from 50 complaints filed by the Ecowaste Coalition on February 10 before the Environmental Ombudsman.
The complaint said mayors, vice mayors and Sangguniang Bayan members, who have “the mandate to establish policies” of their respective local governments and control over the funds, “conspired in committing the violations of RA 9003 within their jurisdiction.”
In 2013 the Environmental Ombudsman Program, in collaboration with the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), launched a three-year nationwide campaign to increase awareness of, and promote voluntary compliance with RA 9003.
Under this program, local governments were directed to conduct their respective self-assessment as to their compliance status and to voluntarily implement corrective actions.
However, the complainant said two years after implementation, tracer results show that RA 9003 remains to be the least prioritized local government program.
RA 9003 said, “No open dumps shall be established and operated, nor any practice or disposal of solid waste by any person, including local governments, which constitutes the use of open dumps for solid wastes, be allowed after the effectivity of this act, every local government shall convert its open dumps to controlled dumps.”
The Environmental Ombudsman said its team will monitor post-closure activities of the locality concerned, and ensure that the provisions of RA 9003 and other environmental laws are fully implemented.
Meanwhile, other areas that are being investigate by Environmental Ombudsman for alleged violation of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 are Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Bataan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, Albay, Quezon, Oriental Mindoro and Palawan.
Under its mandate, the Environmental Ombudsman Team, headed by Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon Gerard Mosquera, shall handle complaints filed against any public official, employee, office or agency mandated to protect the environment and conserve natural resources where the act complained of appears to be illegal, unjust, improper or inefficient.