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Saturday, April 22, 2006
Anti-graft drive goes green
The anti-graft campaign is going green.
A forum for the Association of Resident Ombudsmen for Government Agencies (Aroga) will discuss the liability of public officials who refuse to implement environmental laws.
Aroga’s members are public officials deputized by the anti-graft office as its eyes and ears in other agencies.
The forum, conceptualized by the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas, opens on Monday and will have Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez and representatives from the United Nations Development Project (UNDP) and the European Union in attendance.
Lawyer Wilbert Candelaria, the designated environmental ombudsman, will also be present. The Environmental Ombudsman is a branch of the anti-graft office who takes cognizance of solely environmental law related cases.
Oposa
Among the guest speakers in the forum is lawyer Antonio Oposa, a close associate of slain environmentalist Elpidio “Jojo” dela Victoria.
The forum, with the theme “Resident Ombudsmen: Upholding the Integrity of Governance and Environmental Sustainability,” will be held in Lapu-Lapu City.
Oposa, in 2004, earlier led a group of lawyers in filing administrative and criminal charges against Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza and his wife for their alleged failure to enforce an environmental law.
The suit, which also cited the two for violations of the Local Government Code and the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials, was the first of its kind against a sitting public official.
Accused
It accused the mayor and his wife, Mactan Barangay Captain Paz Radaza, of failing to enforce Republic Act 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, among environmental law violators within their jurisdiction.
Among the provisions allegedly not enforced are those that disallow the operation of open dumpsites, the open burning of solid waste, the collection of non-segregated or unsorted waste and allowing people to live close to dumpsites.
Months before, Oposa and the members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) National Environmental Action Team sent notices to the City Governments of Cebu, Mandaue, Talisay and Lapu-Lapu and expressed their intent to initiate charges unless the cities show compliance with the statute.
Other topics include the result of a study made by Dr. Ronnie Amorado of the Ateneo de Davao University on the Ethnographic Study of Fixers in the Philippines. (KNR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (April 22, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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