MISAMIS Oriental Second District Representative Juliette Uy has refiled a bill banning both the import and export of wastes to prevent more foreign countries from dumping their unwanted garbage in the country.
Uy said she wants the bill to be certified by President Rodrigo Duterte as urgent.
House Bill 3451 enjoins the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Finance, and the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to establish an Environmental Protection Desk at every port of entry and exit in the country to be manned 24 hours and seven days a week.
The bill, according to Uy, draws lessons learned from the House investigation on the Verde Soko imported garbage sent to Misamis Oriental from South Korea.
It also seeks to prohibit any person, groups of persons, business, corporate entity, or government office to import or export any form and whatever amount of waste, processed waste materials, waste by-products whether organic or inorganic and in whatever form whether solid, liquid, liquefied, gaseous, or mixture of substances.
Once passed, shipper of imported wastes shall be permanently banned from shipping or transporting any cargo to the country.