IT COULD be PTSD or post-traumatic stress syndrome when after seeing so much trash settled and floating in several areas of Lake Lanao, I look for trash in every body of water I get in.
Be it the exclusive beaches of Samal or swimming pools of hotels or resorts in Davao, I think of toxic trash. It’s like watching “Jaws” in grade school and every body of water thereafter would have a voracious great white shark or water severely infested with invisible yet lethal e. coli.
So while everybody online was yapping about Naga Leaks and Davao Leaks, I was ranting to a friend, on her birthday weekend spree at the beach, about solid waste management, Republic Act (RA)8550, Nipas, and whatever else.
My premise always had been if these laws were followed or implemented, we would have a cleaner environment. Then there’s political will like what the Dutertes (Digong and Inday) did about the garbage in Davao City.
In this city, people take out trash dutifully and garbage trucks keep a tight schedule. While I was at it, my neurosurgeon-geek-friend, who would always be quiet, cut my enthusiasm (or hysteria) by saying: I really have no idea what laws you are talking about. So, I choked.
What is Nipas? The National Integrated Protected Areas (Nipas) Act designates spaces and areas in the country exclusively as places where wildlife, flora, and fauna can grow.
It is hoped that in these places “the rich biodiversity of the ecosystem can be preserved.”
Nipas is also called as RA 7586 or simply “sibinti-payb it six.” Enacted in 1992, Nipas is the “legal basis for the classification and administration of all designated protected areas to maintain essential ecological processes and life support systems, to preserve genetic diversity, to ensure sustainable use of resources found therein, and to maintain their natural conditions to the greatest extent possible.”
Nipas protects several protected areas like strict nature reserves, natural parks, natural monuments, wildlife sanctuaries, protected landscapes and seascapes, resource reserves, natural biotic areas.
Some of the popular protected areas in Mindanao are the watersheds in Libungan and Allah in Cotabato and Lake Lanao. Likewise, Mt. Matutum and Rajah Sikatuna are protected landscapes while Pujada Bay, Sarangani Bay, and Siargao Island are protected landscapes and seascapes.
Common violations of the Nipas includes: hunting, destroying, disturbing, or mere possession of plants and animals without permits and, dumping of waste products, destroying objects of natural beauty or of interest to cultural communities, leaving refuse and debris.
Several government agencies are tasked to protect these areas. Call them PAMB, DENR, BFAR or Power Rangers if need be but the laws have mandated public servants to implement the laws. If they are doing their job is another matter.
What is RA 8550? “It payb pipti” is the primary law on fisheries and aquatic resources in the Philippines or the Philippine Fisheries Code.
The law seeks to “manage the country’s fishery and aquatic resources in a manner consistent with an integrated coastal area management and to protect the right of the fisherfolk, especially the local communities.”
The most common violations of 8550 include poaching, fishing through illegal means like the use of explosives, noxious or poisonous substances, and electricity, use of fine mesh net, use of active fishing gear, fishing gear or method that destroys coral reefs and other marine habitats, and use of superlight.
Of course, the law prohibits fishing in prohibited and restricted areas. In some places, closed seasons have been declared to give time for fish to spawn.
The law also prohibits illegal gathering, possessing, catching, and selling of certain marine species, precious or semi-precious corals, white sand, silica, pebbles, and other substances of marine habitat, and fishing of rare, threatened, and endangered species.
The law also has a section that defines aquatic pollution and prohibits construction and operation of fish pens without a license or permit.
The Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 or RA 9003 governs waste management in the Philippines and its declared policies ensures the proper segregation, collection, transport, storage, treatment and disposal of solid waste in the country.
It punishes illegal dumping and disposal of wastes, open burning and the operation of illegal dumpsites.
In one of the conversations I had in Marawi City, I was told that only two of the 18 endemic species of Lake Lanao are still existing. It is not even 50 percent of what used to live or what should live in the lake.
The most ironical is that we were able to see one of these threatened species sold in the public market. In my mind, if these small fishes are endangered and threatened, so why are they being caught and sold? And we go back to political will.